


Doppleganger

by GreenFlamedWriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black Paladin Keith, Evil Shiro, M/M, Mirrorverse AU, Pidge has female pronouns ONLY FOR THIS FIC I'll change them with other fics, Season 2 aftermath, Slow Build, VoltronDoppleganger, neglected lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-10-28 04:35:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 27
Words: 87,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10823862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenFlamedWriter/pseuds/GreenFlamedWriter
Summary: Previously on Voltron Legendary Defender, Shiro, the Black Paladin, has gone missing. So far no one knows where he could be, but before he vanished Slav spoke of his demise and  Alternate Timelines before Shiro disapeared.Only can Lance  figure out how to find Shiro, woud it even BE their Shiro? Or an alternate doppleganger?*Completed





	1. Chapter 1

Lance could feel the other's separate once they left the Black lions hanger, it felt as if the bond they had was cut apart into shattered glass shards, he knew some were over thinking, while the others just looked blank, he had no idea what to think, or where to even start.  
They were already far away from the galra through the wormhole, even Kolivan lost one of his own. Today was a victory but it felt like they had lost...

Pidge and Hunk were muttering to one another trying to figure out if they could access any cameras or datalogs that could show them what happened to Shiro. 

“We should look for Matt Holt.” Lance said suddenly when Pidge admitted she wasn’t sure how long it would take. Keith stood up from sitting on the couch “What?” Lance glanced at the others “Until we know for sure if we can find Shiro, but we have more of a chance finding Matt than Shiro at this point-”  
“Are you saying we should abandon Shiro!?” Keith growled sounding almost animalistic, Lance blinked surprised but right now he couldn’t even fight back, he felt so numb and desolate from the others he couldn't dredge up the motivation to even yell back.

“We know more about Matt than Shiro, and if he’s as good as Pidge then both of them would have a chance of finding Shiro better than any of us.” Lance muttered under his breath “Plus you were going to leave Allura that one time-”  
“You got something to say!?” Keith stepped forward and Lance stepped back alarmed until Pidge and Hunk cut in “Matt did work with Shiro, so it would be better to get him here and have both minds working on this.”  
Pidge chipped in “We have Slav too!” Keith did not look happy with this, but Lance relaxed realising that Keith was not going to go for his throat.

“But what do we do about Voltron?” Lance asked “Without a Paladin for the Black Lion-”  
“We do.” Keith suddenly said, and Lance looked pleasantly surprised “We do? Who?” Keith took a breath “Me.” Lance glanced at the others seeing their stunned looks also.  
“Uh, yeah,” He chuckled “And I’m the easter Bunny.”  
“Lance.” Allura scolded and he saw that they were all serious, his face fell looking worse for wear.  
“Are you...freakin kidding me?” He looked from Keith to the others and realised that he was the only one that had a problem with the whole thing.

“Keith!? For real? He’s not a Leader!” Lance yelled gesturing wildly at Keith, the red paladin, Alluras eyes narrowed “Lance, if Keith can pilot the Black Lion then there is nothing we can do.”  
Lance felt his face heat up, even if you work hard it doesn’t matter if someone who only relies on talent gets everything handed to them on a single platter.  
“I don’t give a flying Quiznack what the Black Lion says!” He fumed then stomped into Keiths space and poked his chest “When Shiro gets back, I’m going to give my complaints. I followed him because he was my hero, Why should I listen to you!?”  
“Lance!” 

He turned away and stomped away from the group and heard the doors shut behind him, he was still breathing heavily and he had to lean against the wall when he noticed how he wasn’t getting enough air.  
Shit, it's okay, it’s fine.  
He told himself and pushed himself to keep walking, towards his room, feeling his whole body move on autopilot, he couldn’t think straight and he mostly wanted to cry to get everything of his shoulders.

The other paladins watched, Pidge sighed “Y’know, I’m not that surprised he blew up, technically Lance was the fighter Cadet in the garrison and Keith flunked out, technically it should have been to the next high ranking officer.” Hunk looked at Pidge like she was insane 

“Well the Black Lion won't let anybody pilot it except for, Zarkon,” He counted on his hands “Shiro and Keith...Wow maybe Lance does have a chance afterall.” Hunk hummed, and Allura gave a weary sigh.  
“What matters is that all of you should resolve this conflict ahead of time, as of now we are vulnerable and with the black paladin lost to us we have to find another way to form Voltron.”

Pidge glanced at the others “How? I mean if Keith pilots black who would pilot red?” Even Keith glanced at Allura and saw her take a breath “I will.”  
“Wait, What?” Pidge looked shocked as well as the others, Allura smiled “I have once before, I thought Red would be problematic with Keith but she adapted fine.”  
“Why didn’t you pilot her before?” Keith asked suspiciously and Allura looked at him as if it was obvious.  
“To create the wormholes, of course. But with Zarkon gone we have to use for them as much as before.” The others glanced at one another, Even Hunk looked very unsure “That means we’re going to have to start over, from scratch especially with the bonding,”  
“We formed Voltron before, it would be easier this time.”  
“I hope so.”

 

Once Lance removed the armor he walked to his room, mostly in a daze, some might say he was in shock? But Lance didn’t feel anything, maybe that’s what made him upset, mostly with himself, everyone was devastated and after they were all working on plans to find Shiro and what to do next. But did it mean something that Lance felt so detached from it all? That panic that the others were experiencing seemed oddly absent.

Maybe because the others knew what they could do to fix this mess of a situation and all Lance had to give were...lame puns and jokes, but right now he knew it wasn’t the best time for that.  
Once he lay on his bed and tucked the blanket under his chin he had a stray thought, would the others be like this if it was him that went missing?  
Then he instantly felt bad for making the situation about him, and buried his face into the pillow.  
The whole situation was messed up, and he wondered what Shiro would do…

His eyes slipped close, and he felt light as if his whole room vanished, and he was floating at the midst of it all. And soon the darkness exploded into a sea of stars.  
Swirls of colour and galaxy greeted him like an old friend, Lance felt breathless as he floated in space, he had never had a dream this vivid before, there was colourful storm clouds ranging from purples to orange and from his right he saw a star that was a little bigger than the others, was it a neighboring planet?  
Before he could decide to investigate he saw something floating a mile away from him, he didn’t even noticed them, it was as if they were apart of the vast emptiness of space themselves.  
Lance squinted just barely making out the shape floating there, then he froze, he knew who that floating person was.  
“Shiro!?”  
Then everything stretched before his eyes making him feel really disoriented then, he couldn’t describe it but it all came rushing back with a snap!  
He wasn’t sure if his body lurched towards Shiro, or if Shiro appeared before him but he was right next to the floating body right now, and Lance inhaled sharply when he got a sharper look.  
Shiro’s helmet was slightly cracked in the corner, he was still breathing but Lance felt super worried with how long Shiro could survive.  
Lance reached forward “...Shiro?” Then his hands passed right through him, he felt cold. Lance pulled back stunned and a little spooked, “Shiro? Can you hear me?”  
Wait...This was a dream.  
Lance relaxed, he forgot that it was a dream, but it felt so real, this had to be the weirdest dream he’d ever had.  
He was about to say as much but was cut off by a sound.

He turned around sharply and sighed with relief “Shiro! It’s the ship!” Then he remembered Shiro couldn’t hear him, but when Lance had a closer look at the ship, he suddenly had a bad feeling, the lights of the ship that was a warm glowing blue, was suddenly a foreboding purple.

Lance drew closer in front of Shiro feeling his heart sky rocket, this was wrong, this was like the time the ship was huanted.  
There was a loud creaking sound that almost burst his eardrums, then he saw the hanger door creak open. And a bright light burst out and it opened more and blinded Lance completely.  
He shielded his eyes shut, just as he felt Shiro’s hand knock against his-

Lance woke up.

He lay in bed his heart beating very fast under the palm of his hand, then he sighed letting his eyes shut, it was just a dream, it was a really weird dream.  
Feeling much calmer, he glanced to his left and saw the time, he was only asleep for three hours. He felt so tired, how comes you feel more drained when you take a nap?  
Lance licked his lips, his mouth tasted gross. Getting up, he walked towards the bathroom and went through his daily routine like a zombie, the food goo used to make his face masks worked like a charm, if anything they cleared his spots better than actual mud masks from earth, he didn’t even need to exfoliate, or purify or even mostriorize just use food goo.

He washed his face and looked back at his reflection, his eyes looked a little puffy, he ran a finger under them, did he have dark circles? It was hard to tell when you look in the mirror all the time, since it was so gradual you couldn’t tell until somebody else pointed it out.  
As Lance reached for a towel he thought back to the Blades of Mamoura.

Even now they could have helped, maybe give Allura some pointers on how to use her magic, that was a big freaking surprise that’s for sure, but ever since their last meeting they’ve been rather...distant.

Who could blame them? Their last meeting kind of exploded in their faces.  
Lance began to walk back to the kitchen hoping that a little food might perk him up, to hear voices coming loudly from said location.  
His eyebrows raised in surprise, he assumed most of the team would have rested, at least after the battle.  
Once the doors slid open, his appearance didn’t disrupt their conversation, it seems he wasn’t important enough to acknowledge, splendid.

“...Now would be the best time to start!” Keith sounded tired with a hint of anger as if he was repeating himself to a child that wouldn’t listen.  
“I can’t just hack into any networking station,” Pidge yelled back sounding just as weary “That would show our location!”  
Hunk snickered “Heh, that rythmes.”  
“SHUT UP, HUNK!” Both Keith and Pidge yelled at the same time. And Lance knew know was the time to step in.  
It didn’t matter how mad you were, you never take your frustrastions out on Hunk.  
“Alright, hold up!” Lance placed his hands on the table, gaining all of their attention and raised an eyebrow.  
“What’s going on?”

Pidge pointed at Keith with her thumb “Guppy here, wants to hijack a galra satellite and use the radio waves to hack into other bases and see what happened to my brother.” Lance glanced from Keith to Pidge uncertainly.  
“And this is a bad idea because?” Pidge gave a long suffering sigh “It would be a possible idea, but we’ve already tried that, the only possible base that has all of that intel was the Galra prison and I saw some footage of Matt escaping with a rebellion and unknown rebellion that even the Blade of Mamoura has no knowledge of- Believe me I asked!”  
“Well that’s good, that means he’s safe right?” Pidge nodded “Yeah, and I think that he’s been safe for a while,” She looks relieved “It seemed he was saved a year ago just after Shiro sacrificed himself to save Matt, it’s just finding him…” Pidge murmered 

Lance felt happy that Pidge knew for certain Matt was safe, but Lance had to wonder if he was really, any rebellion against Zarkon is great but what if these rebels...groomed him, or something.  
If Matt was saved so long ago, why didn’t he return to Earth? Or try to save Shiro who was still a prisoner?  
He must have been zoning out because the Paladins began to have a row with each other. 

“We need a better battle plan, because so far,” She pointed a threatening finger “Yours have been lousy!”  
He saw it was about to escalate when Keith puffed in enough air to start having a yelling match, before Lance intervined.  
“Okay, Okay! We’re taking a break!” Pidge looked at him aghast “Lance, you can’t just-” She was aiming her tone at him and Lance was not appreciative for it.  
He flicked her on the forehead, you wouldn’t know who was more stunned, Pidge or the others.  
“We’ve just came from a long battle three hours ago, and in the span of that time we lost Shiro, I’m not saying going to sleep if you can’t help it, but rest. Arguing and thinking right now is too much for any of us.”

Lance crossed his arms “The only thing we have to worry about right now, is getting as far away from Zarkons vengeful troupe.”  
Allura nodded “I’m one step ahead of you, I’ve used the wormhole to jump 99 clicks away. We’re heading for a triangle planets that can jam radio signals and is isolated from any life forms, we would be able to hide there for a while until we find our bearings.” Lance felt reliedf, okay they have a short reprieve to compose themselves, but what to do in the time being.  
He glanced at Pidge who was biting their lip.  
“You know it is possible to get to a galra station underdetected, especially with Blue, And after the fall of Zarkon they would no doubt be a bunch of reports talking about rebels fighting against the galra.” Pidge looked up hopefully, “It’s just finding one.”

“I think I can help with that.” She said like a beacon of hope and gestured gracefully with her wrist, a blue hologram side into view and Lance had a stray thought that Tony Stark would freak if he was in this space craft.  
Heck he and Allura could bond over losing personnel ai.

“There is a Station located three quadrants from here, it is not heavily guarded and seems to be in an open area…” Allura paused even Lance glanced at the others.  
“Suspicious much?” He asked and saw hesitant nods all around.

Keith only scowled “Well if it’s suspicious we should check it out.”  
“Um, how about no? We can’t form Voltron so we should avoid any unnecessary ris-”  
Keith ignored him and stepped next to Allura “When would we be able to wormhole there?” Allura hummed next to him “To your time a few hours.” Lance felt his jaw twitch.  
Pidge chuckled “Good going, Spock. You’re the pride of the federation.” Lance turned his glare to her “The only reason I’m not going to steal your laptop is because you quoted my favourite sci-fi to me.”  
“Star wars is better.”  
Lance turned sharply to see Keith still looking down at the screen that Allura was just at, but Lance knew he heard him.  
That mother ducking piece of-

“Alright, we get to this station, then what?” Lance asked crossing his arms. Keith looked up at him, finally.  
“We’re going to take Pidge’s lion, this is only surveillance mission only, Pidge and I will be able to slip in undercover and easily get out with all the information.” Lance raised his eyebrows.  
“That sounds too simple,”  
“Lay of Lance, we don’t have time for you to judge each and every action.” Pidge said then glanced at Keith “But Lance is right, what if we run into trouble, then what?” Keith shrugs “Zarkon is defeated, I doubt the Galra can surprise us.” Lance visibly held himself back from biting out a retort.

Keith was going to crash this team into the ground, and Pidge and Hunk didn’t even care! Lance didn’t even realise that his finger was tapping against his arm.  
“Alright Pidge, get ready for extraction, we leave in 15 minutes.” Pidge and Hunk walked out, but Pidge glanced at Lance who was still staring ahead at a random spot and felt a little worried for their usually cheerful friend.

“You didn’t have to do that you know.” Keith said suddenly snapping Lance back to the present, he looked at Keith irritated face and wondered what he did this time.  
“I’m not following.”  
“Stepping in like that with Pidge, I had it under control.” Lance frowned taking aback “Dude, she was tearing you a new one, and if I didn’t then who was?”  
Keith breathed through his nose heavily and Lance realised that Keith was mad, “I didn’t ask you to, I know you think you can be a better leader,”  
Oh he was working himself into an argument, can’t have that now.  
“Hold on wait,” Lance held his hands up.

“That is not what this is about, I’m mad at hell with Shiro right now, and before with everything going on I exploded okay.” Lance took a breath “I don’t think I would make a better leader, but I at least want the benefit of a doubt, you know, have someone say Lance I trust you with this responsibility, and to know that even Shiro doesn’t think of me as someone to step up- it’s really pissing me off okay.” Lance took a breath, he saw Keiths face and felt his heart stop.  
Crap, he said too much.

Damage control.

“Lance, I had no idea that you-”  
“No. You heard nothing. We’re going to go to that Galra station and just...do the thing.” Lance turned around sharply and began walking towards the doors.  
“Lance!” Keith ran up to keep up, but the boy seemed to be power walking towards his lion.  
Damn his tall legs.

Pidge was still a little snippy with them from their last mishap, and Lance knew he was paying for it now.  
“Captain on the bridge.” Pidge said her smirk absolutely devious and Lance felt a stab to the heart.  
As soon as he went to his lion he looked her way and mouth I hate you.  
Keith had no idea what was going on.

“I think Lance should come with us.” Pidge said suddenly making both boys look up sharply, Lance looked just as stunned as Keith.  
“Um, Why?”  
“Lance was a big help last time, getting the face recognition from the general to get into the rooms, we don’t know what type of surprises this station has.”  
Keith sighed “Fine.” He pointed at Lance who’s grin was way too wide “Not a word.” Lance made a zipping motion.  
Hunk whispered so only Pidge would here.  
“You’re bringing them on purpose to torture them aren’t you?”  
“Yep. I plan on making this mission very uncomfortable.”  
“Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

 

“Here’s the base, we get in hack into their systems then get out.”  
Pidge looked down “I’ll look into prisoner files that would be the only way they would know where Matt is. Keith, Lance I need you guys to make sure nobody alerts the alarms at puts us at danger,”  
She looked away mumbling under her breath.  
“I don’t want a repeat of last time.”  
Lance grimaced, but he had to admit that last time it was not completely his fault…not entirely anyway.  
Pidge used the cloaking of their lion and manage to get an opening to sneak into one of the towers.  
Lance and Keith easily knocked out the androids and Pidge set to work using Matts photo as a focus point information streamed easily showing many images and videos of matts last known were abouts.  
“They say they caught prisoners who were from rival rebel grounds, there’s tons of them! It’s not just the blades of Mamoura, Matts in one called the Gaia Gang, heh look at you now Matt, in a gang.” Pidge chuckled to themselves.  
Lance could only feel his anxiety spike each tick that went by.  
“Yeah but where is he now?”  
“Well obviously they were well hidden so the Galra won’t find them.” Pidge snapped “But I think I might know someone who can help.”  
“Who- oh Quiznack!” Keith cursed when suddenly two androids appeared looking alarmed then instantly yelling “Intruders!”  
“Oh great- Pidge we have to leave,”  
“I know that genius!”  
As both Keith and Pidge advanced forward, Lance stayed behind and watched behind him for any surprises, he cursed loudly when he saw a couple of androids spot him.  
“Guys, you better hurry it up!” He called back and began to run with them, Keith hacked anything in his way, and when Pidge was almost grabbed she slipped through easily and zapped the guy for extra measure. Lance saw a trash shoute.  
“Um, Guys?”  
“No, Lance.”  
“...”  
“Oh god dammit!” Keith hurled both of them ahead and leapt in afterwards, luckily they were shot out into space rather than in a furnace or garbage dumb in the basement.  
Lance floated in space looking at all the rubbish around him.

“Nazi’s and litters. The Galra know no bounds.” Pidge floated to her lion along with Lance and Keith, she looked at the two with a grin on her face, even as the fleets appeare dout of airlocks and seemed to be targetting them.  
“Well this was fun,” She pulled back on her controls “But Let’s blow this Galra stand.”

 

Pidge Lance and Keith barely managed to get away, if it wasn’t for the green lions cloaking and Keith’s great piloting skills they barely would have made it.  
Allura saw the three paladins shuffle in like zombies, she raised an eyebrow “I take it that the mission didn’t go well?”  
Pidge glanced up “No it did, but we barely managed to escape.”  
Lance almost said they wouldn’t have been caught if Keith was paying attention.  
But he held his tongue, wasn’t he the one that didn’t want them to fight?  
“Okay today was a long day and I’m exhausted,” lance stretched “Pidge you should sleep too,”  
“Lance,” her tone was almost scathing “I am not sleeping not when we’re this close.”  
Lance almost argued back then thought better of it. He shrugged “Okay, fine. Stay up all night, but you know if you’re so exhausted you read the same line over and over, of miss something important that could help you find your brother? I’ll leave it to you. Since you clearly know best.”  
Lance stepped out and after the doors closed Pidge scowled.  
“I hate him so much right now.”  
“He’s only being surprisingly logical.” Keith admitted even Allura watched the door “I never realised that Shiro’s absence would affect him this much.”  
“Even I’m surprised, but he and Shiro were never that close…” Coran said looking puzzled also.  
Keith frowned even admitting to himself, that out of everyone lance was the last to feel terrible loss for Shiro yet he’s the only one reacting out of proportion.  
Once lance went back to his room he could feel his exhaustion weigh on him heavily, climbing into bed he thought fleetly that he’s never been this TIRED before.  
Then he slept and the world vanished around him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for any grammer mistakes, I'm dsylexic. Also everything written is real, like Shiro IS in an Alternate world and Lance's dreams are his way of communicating with him. usually stories "Aren't what they seem," Mine is pretty much...yeah.

...And then he was walking through the halls of the castle. Lance stopped walking feeling very disoriented. Didn’t he just fall asleep, feeling lost in his dream he began walking again.  
And he looked ahead to see Shiro walking in front of him, Lance inhaled sharply, “Shiro?” Forgetting if this was a dream or not he ran forward.  
“Shiro!” He grabbed the mans arm and saw with surprise his arm didn’t pass through like last time, in his haste he didn’t notice the glare aimed at him.  
“You’re okay- Where are you!?” Lance suddenly yelled, glaring at Shiro fully “The others are looking for you, Pidge won’t sleep, Hunks making enough food to feed the Galra empire and keith- don’t get me started on Keith, what gave the impression that he would make a good leader?” Lance paused when he saw Shiro not respond, but instead looked terrified.  
“Uh Shiro?” Lance blinked, then felt his own anxiety hit, this was a dream and Shiro was scared.  
“Oh good is this a nightmare!? I mean I fell asleep and I’m really stressed anything can-”  
Shiro covered his mouth looking a little calmer, and Lance eyes went cross eyed at the hand covering his mouth.  
It felt...real?  
How bizarre.

“Lance not out here,” Shiro took his hand and began to guide him towards one of the rooms, once it was shut, Shiro locked it behind him.  
“Um, Shiro? You’re kinda freaking me out right now.”  
“You’re Lance, my Lance. From Voltron defenders of the universe?” Lance frowned “Um, what? Yeah- wait what do you mean you’re lance?” He tilted his head to the side and saw Shiro’s sigh of relief.

“I don’t know how much time you have, but you are not going to believe this.” Lance was slowly deducing that this wasn’t a dream. It felt too real to be a dream.  
“Try me, we fly giant space cats, what do you know that would shock me?” He grinned and Shiro shared his look, but looked more tired than anything.  
“I think I’m in an alternate universe, where the Alteans tried to take over the world and it was the Galra that opposed them.” Lance’s eyes widened.  
“Voltron is the enemy in this planet, we don’t liberate planets. We take over and control them.” Lance blinked and then glanced down “Oh, you’re right I don’t believe that.” Lance hand moved blindly behind him before he found a seat to fall down in.

 

“You mentioned something about a nightmare before?” Shiro asked after a while, once Lance had calmed down. Lance took a steady breath “Yeah, back at the other castle I went to bed.”  
“But you know this is real, don’t you Lance?” Shiro asked and Lance bit his lip “Well, I don’t know, what if this is a dream? I mean I have dreams like this all the time.”  
Shiro raised an eyebrow and Lance flushed “Of us- the team, and going back home and everything!” Shiro’s lips quirked. Of course.  
“But I am real, Lance. I don’t know how long you’ll be asleep for, or if you’ll come back.” He sounded urgent, Lance frowned “What is it?”

"Somethings happening here, I don't know what yet but, Voltron had lost to the Galra empire but Zarkon had died, I'm sure of it but...something feels wrong, almost stirring."  
Lance blinked “Yep this is a dream.”  
“Lance I’m serious! I don’t know long much longer I can take pretending to be this bloodthirsty psychopaths who wants to enslave all the planets and innocents, and even worse you won’t leave me alone, the lance in this universe, for some reason he’s very…clingy.”  
Lance frowned “Hmm, you are my hero, I guess it’s amplified here to the point of fan boy extreme.”  
Lance frowned when he realised “How do I know this is real, if I tell the others they won’t believe me and even so how in the heck are we going to get you back?”  
Shiro looked down “I don’t know…” Lance was about to say something then frowned feeling really sleepy all of a sudden.  
“Shiro…I think I’m going-” and everything went black.

 

Lance woke up with a gasp, still drowsy he almost went back asleep, his dreams slipping away and his eyes closed-  
Nope.  
He groaned as he got up, he had to tell somebody before he forgot about his…whatever type of dream that was.  
Lance walked towards the hallways he slowed. How could he tell anyone? They would say it was only a dream and he was stressed out.  
Lance but his lip, what could he do?  
“Ah taking a midnight stroll, in 3.14 alternate realities we would be attacked by a brain sucking solplux and be ejected into space!” Slav.  
Slav was behind him, Lance shivered “Can you not mention ejecting into space, been there done that.”  
“Ah okay.” Slav just stood there and Lance frowned, how on earth did Shiro handle this guy.  
“Well I’m just gonna,” lance stopped, suddenly looking back at Slav who only stared back.  
“Slav…how much do you know about alternate realities?”  
“Hmm?”  
Both Lance and Slav sat towards the constellation deck, they boy said nothing at first only gazed at the unknown stars.  
“Now why would you want about alternate realities?” Slav asked looking very perplexed.  
“I want to know if I’m a leader in one of them.” Lance joked but Slav looked very serious.  
“I see two universe where you are the leader of voltron.” Lance beamed “Sweet.”  
“You die in both.”  
Not sweet, damn “And Keith takes over.” Lance clenched his hands, really? Was Keith better than him in every universe!?  
“Okay, what if I wanted to go into an alternate reality?”  
“Why would you want to do that?”  
“For the hot babes.” Lance said losing patience.  
Slav hummed “Well if we could possibly manipulate the wormhole we would be able to travel to an alternate realities but it would be a stretch it could have many dangers-may cause an alternate paradox! And we would have no way of knowing how to get back!”  
Lance frowned “Allura managed, Coran was getting younger and the mice began to change-”  
“That happened in this universe!” Slav gasped looking horrified and Lance grimaced.  
Oh sweet Quiznack.  
Now he couldn’t get the guy to shut up, talking about the chances of finding Shiro slimming from 20% to 8%  
Lance wouldn’t even trust his iPhone battery to stay alive at that thought.  
“Okay, okay- 8% is good, that’s manageable, um what about dreams?”  
“What about then?” Slav asked more than irritated by being intturupted.  
“I keep dreaming about Shiro and he says that he’s in an alternate reality, where Voltron was the bad guys.”  
Slav blinked “You had an astral projection to connect to the Shiro of this universe to another!?” Lance grimaced.  
“Maybe, but what if it’s a dream?”  
“Was it like a dream?” Slav countered and Lance sighed “It felt…real?” Slav seemed to think it over “Maybe if I can somehow create possible simulations of scenarios of the possible outcome of manipulating the wormhole I might be able to figure out on how to get Shiro back to this world.”  
Lance beamed “Great, when are you going to do it?”  
“Next week, it feels like a Tuesday type of thing.”  
Lance scowled “Or you could do it now?” Slav blinked “Oh of course, this dimension…” and he slivered of.  
Lance frowned at the…whatever type of alien he was, retreating form.  
Slav strangely reminded him of Griffin from Men In Black 3 the unicorn with all those abilities to see into the future.  
Man he did not know how on earth the guy managed to stay sane, he was annoying true but he could be worse…  
Lance brushed his hand through his hair then began to walk towards the kitchen, that talk really made him hungry.

Once he walked towards the kitchen he noticed that the others weren’t at breakfast yet, shrugging Lance went towards the pump station and grabbed a tube and mindlessly filled his bowl with space goop.  
Lance wondered where the others were, he hoped Pidge was sleeping at least, Hunk wasn’t in the kitchen so maybe he finally got some rest? Lance sat at the table and began to play with his food, for now Slav was working on finding Shiro so that took some pressure of his shoulders, and Pidge was looking for Matt, if wished he could tell the others about his dream he would have a bet with Keith and see who would be found first.  
Before Lance could even take a bite of his food, their was an announcement over head, he glanced up surprised to hear it was Keith. And he was announcing a meeting.  
Shoving food into his mouth he began to power walk to the main control room, still munching on goo and saw the others were there already.  
Pidge looked really tired, so did Hunk “Did you guys get any sleep?” They both looked at him in pain “We were asleep.” Hunk said and Pidge finished “We just woke up, our inner clocks screwed up.” Lance pressed his lips together to keep himself from laughing.  
He saw Keith step towards them, and Lance frowned to see how close he was to Allura, Coran was there too but it made Lance really uncomfortable knowing that they were hanging a lot more.  
He just had no idea why though.  
“It’s been a few days and I know we’re all tired, but right now we should try to form Voltron.” Everyone looked surprised, Pidge glanced at the others “You’re kidding right?” Keith shook his head.  
“Deadly serious, we’re lucky that none of the Galra have attacked yet, we need to form Voltron now before we get surprised.” Lance glanced at the others.  
“Keith, I don’t think this is a good idea, I mean it’s only been two days-”  
Keith ignored him and glanced at the others “Are you guys up to it.” Lance grit his teeth, while Pidge was talking to Keith “I guess, but how? I mean with you in Black who’ll pilot Red? Would Red even let anyone pilot her?” That was when Allura stepped forward “I’ll pilot red.”  
Lance was so numb to getting shocked, compared to the others he was calm about it “Alluras a paladin cool, let’s go in the lions and have the castle attack us.” Keith frowned “I don’t think that’s-”  
“Oh it is necessary.” Pidge said looking at Allura like she was a stick of meat “You know, since it worked so well last time.” Hunk grinned too “Yeah, You can do it Allura, you can bond with the lions and together we’ll form Voltron.” Allura was at first confused then scowled “You want revenge from the first time, don’t you.” Lance beamed “Yep! Come on Princess let’s get into the lions!”.  
Secretly Lance was so not looking forward to this.

 

Basically...it was a disaster. Allura bonded with Red okay, so that was the easy part, but the actual forming Voltron? Nada.  
As soon as they were close to forming, an onslaught of thoughts assaulted his senses.  
“I just found him!”  
“I can’t keep losing my family!”  
“This hurts- Everything hurts-”  
“What can we do? This is hopeless!?”

Primal rare screams made Lance grimace, the team were too vunerable, Keith just found Shiro only to lose him again, he felt awful for not thinking of what Keith was going through, How Pidge lost Shiro the only link to her father and Matt, Hunk was having an anxiety attack he couldn’t keep doing this, and Allura was just as lost as all of them.  
All their thoughts melded to one and Lance could feel it like a heavy weight, his hands were limp against the controls as tears pricked his eyes.  
This was too much- it was as if the lions themselves were in pain.  
Lance could feel all the frustration build up.  
“I’m useless.”

They all felt it, the loss of Shiro and no way of finding him, but Lance leapt onto the thought and began thinking it over and over again,  
“Lance-” Keith grunted “Knock it off!” Lance scowled, but pushed the thought louder, he tried to convey that they all felt it, they all felt lost, their not alone, we all feel it.

The others who were tentative and guarded began to open up, Lance felt hope maybe they have a chance- suddenly they cried out and broke apart.

“I couldn’t do it.” The voice was so quiet Lance wasn’t sure who it came from and was surprised to realise it came from keith. Lance felt panicked “It wasn’t your fault- we all pulled back. But we were so close, we almost did it!” He tried to sound cheerful and hoped the others wouldn’t tell how hopeless he actually felt.  
He could hear Hunks smile “Thanks, dude.”  
“We should take a break.” Keith said and everyone groaned out an agreement.

Before Lance could even think about bed he saw Allura coming towards him removing her helmet, “I never realised how...intense forming Voltron actual was.” Lance gave a tired grin “It’s much different up close, huh?” Allura nodded “And I apologise, for being so overbearing the first time-”  
“It’s okay, I can understand why you were trying so hard.” Allura looked relieved then he expression changed “Lance, can you do something for me?”  
“Sure thing Princess.” Please be something good.  
“Can you talk to Keith for me?” Lance instantly turned away and began walking towards his room.  
“No.” Allura crossed her arms “Lance, only Keith listens to you-” Lance made a sound like a snort, Keith never listened to him. Not once.  
“He really needs someone to talk to, he’s...falling apart.” Lance clenched his hands “How about he talks to you, since you guys are all buddy, buddy.” Allura frowned “I don’t know what you mean?” Lance rolled his eyes “Oh please, you guys have been hanging out a lot-”

“He’s a leader of Voltron, there’s things he has to know,” Lance turned back to her looking confused “What do you mean things he should know? Are you withholding information from the rest of us?”  
Allura took a long breath “It was fine when Shiro was here.”  
Lance knew there was a system in place for a reason, but it still hurt that Allura didn’t tell them because she didn’t believe it was important.  
Knowing Zarkon was the previous Black Paladin was pretty freakin important.

Lance scowled “Fine, I’ll talk to Keith, but if he explodes in my face I’m allowed to punch his.” Allura looked confused when lance walked away.

He knew he shouldn’t be looking for Keith while being angry, but Allura wouldn’t leave him alone if he didn’t get this done and over with.  
It wasn’t hard to find keith, just go to the training room and hope to god a gladiator isn’t thrown his way.  
The doors slid open and Lance stepped inside, wrapping his coat around his waist, after that fiasco of forming voltron he felt that his temperature was going all over the place.  
He faltered to a stop to see that Keith was sitting on the floor, with his knife in his hands. Lance did not want to approach that, he gulped then leaned over Keith.

“Hey dude, what’re ya doing?” He asked, Keith flinched then looked away “Nothing,” Lance pursed his lips then made to sit down “It doesn’t sound like nothing,”  
“Leave me alone,” Lance leaned back “Whoa, what the hell? I came here, from my own violation to talk to you-”  
“I didn’t ask, the last thing I need is for you to rub it in.”  
“Rub what in,” Keith whirled on him, and Lance was stunned to see up close how awful keith actually looked, he looked like a zombie.  
“I get it, today went terribly I know that!” Lance leaned back, was Keith going to stab him.

“I told you, I even said that we shouldn’t have tried today but did you listen? No! Keith if you want to be leader you’re going to have to listen to me-”  
“You’re not in charge here!” Keith stood up and Lance gave an exasperated breath “That’s not- I don’t want to be...Argh!” Lance stood up do and walked away “You’re so infuriating.” He spat over his shoulder “Fine, sit here and cry.” He pulled his coat off and yanked them on his shoulders.  
“Last time I help you.”

 

Lance walked to his bedroom and felt beyond irritated, Once inside his room he pulled on his lion robes and began attacking his pillows and blankets, first Allura now Keith, he hoped to god that Hunk and Pidge weren’t going to be emotionally stunted like the others.  
He fell face first onto his bed, he couldn’t take much more of this.

 

“...If you tell anyone who I am,” Lance was startled by the pure rage that was spilling from this person's mouth, it made Lance want to flinch and duck and cover.  
He suddenly felt wide awake, his eyes opened to reveal Shiro glaring down at him, and he looked beyond angry, at him he deduced since Shiro was grabbing his shirt.  
Shiro was really close and Lance’s heart skyrocketed into terrified anxiety, was Shiro going to hit him!?  
Lance held his hands up swiftly “S-Shiro it’s me, It’s me!” He shut his eyes and tried to cower to make himself as nonthreatening as possible.

Shiro didn’t look deteriorated at all, if anything he looked more suspicious, Lance grimaced “We’re still looking for you- I talked to Slav he has some idea on how to get you back and uh…” Lance looked up trying to think of what else to say.  
He didn’t realise that Shiro was slowly letting go of his shirt “And we tried to form Voltron today-” Lance pulled a face “It didn’t end well.”  
Shiro stepped back looking relieved “Lance.” The boy looked up surprised, Shiro had never been so happy to see him before.  
“I’m actually glad to see you.” Lance scoffed “Yeah, sure.” Keith would have been better, Shiro would have been home by now.

“Lance?” Shiro was about to ask but Lance changed the subject “Why did you make Keith Leader?” He was generally curious about it, But Shiro only paused, for a few minutes then looked away “You talked to Slav?” Lance eyes widened, he ignored me!?  
He was so done of being ignored today.

“Yeah, he has some idea on how to get you back, but he needs a location something to lock on y’know like using a gps when you’re lost.” Lance glanced around, just noticing that the castle did not look any different from the usual castle. “I mean, if there was anything left behind in your lion we could probably use that,” Shiro looked put out and Lance pursed his lips “Shiro, I know you want accurate science, but this?” He gestured wildly to the hallway they were in “Is an alternate dimension, something only discussed in Star Trek.”  
“Star wars is better.” Lance almost stumbled, then glared accusingly at Shiro.  
It was you!  
Ignoring the blatant lie he continued “So I have no idea on how to get you out, besides Slav.” Shiro crossed his arms.  
“Do the others have any theories about this.” Lance felt his eyes flicker.

“Um, uh Slav um was thinking of tampering with the Teleduv thinking it might open a pathway to get you back.” Shiro have a long suffering sigh, he did not look pleased at all knowing Slav was the only one to save him. It wasn’t inspiring much confidence.  
“Look,” Shiro started looking a little stressed, especially with how hard his hand was clenching his arms “I know Slav is a genius, but I wish I had a second opinion, What did Pidge have to say or Allura.” Lance knew this was coming but he really did not want to say anything.

But at Shiros expected look Lance knew he had to saw it, he mumbled.  
Shiro frowned “What was that?”  
Lance looked away “I didn’t tell them.”  
“...”

Lance glanced up and almost wished he hadn’t, Shiro looked murderous.  
“You...What!?” Lance flinched, he rarely heard Shiro yell “Well what were they going to believe!? Hey guys I keep having dreams of Shiro he’s in an alternate dimension where we are the bad guys! Do I have any proof? No!” Lance began to pace, feeling all his pent up frustration spill like an overflowing sink.

“They wouldn’t believe me, I always goof around and they’ll think I’m sabotaging the mission to find you, Pidge has lost enough already,” He had a painful flash on their effort with Voltron and grimaced “And Hunk wishes he could do more, and Keith is losing his freakin mind!” Lance yelled then began poking Shiro in the chest, it felt as if Lance was the only one who was tall enough to get into Shiro’s face.  
“Over losing you, again! And being the Black Paladin!” Lance could see that through his rant he was visibly pale, Lance felt the fight drain out of him and sighed “I don’t want to give them false hope, not until me and Slav are hundred percent sure we can bring you home, I’ll ask Pidge indirectly if that’ll help.” Lance leaned back thinking on the arms of Voltron “Pidge and Keith kinda love their theories,”

Shiro only swallowed “Lance, I had no idea I’m so sorr-” Lance shook his head “It happened, and it’s over, no use apologising.” He took a breath to clear his thoughts.  
“Okay so how did this universe version of us, find you?” Lance asked all of a sudden, it caught Shiro of guard “Um, Near the Endeiod Planet, it’s has purple and yellow galaxies.” Lance pursed his lips “Okay, I’ll just let it slip that Slav picked up on something in that area, maybe there might be some clue on how to find you,” he glanced up at Shiro and saw how tired the senior officer looked, putting up this act must be killing him.  
Lance tensed suddenly having a very bad thought.  
“Shiro?”  
“Hmm?”  
Lance eyes were wide with fear, that Shiro instantly tensed wondering what spooked the teen.  
“I just wondered, if you’re here. Then what happened to this universe's counterpart?” Shiro’s eyes widened.  
“I hadn’t thought of that, I did not think that we could have switched places,” Shiro looked lost in thought “If we had switched then this versions Shiro is floating around in space.” Lance looked worried “And if not?” Shiro shared his look “Well my nominations for an oscar won’t mean jack if this Voltron catches me in the act.” Lance couldn’t help it, he laughed.

“But wait, if there's a Shiro in our universe, he could be used to locate this play and we can figure out a way to switch him back.” Lance said suddenly snapping his fingers “It’s just finding him.” Shiro looked settled too “I’ll just have to wait this out.” Shiro placed his hands on his hips “I was in a galra ship, this is nothing.” Before Lance could say more he saw his eyesight flicker.  
“Shiro-”

He woke up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I was going to upload this yesterday but I had a nap and woke up late, so by then it was pointless.  
> So far nothings went to par, so Lance decides that the team needs some bonding excerisises that was inspired by my amazing sister. seriously its a fun game, play it at parties.

When Lance woke up, he rubbed his hand over his face and froze to feel a spot on his chin.  
Oh no. oh god no.  
Lance shot out of bed and ran towards the mirror and gasped in horror, this wasn’t a regular spot. This one was red and obvious but you couldn’t pick it, it sat there looking like a douche and Lance hated these spots.  
He could feel his eyes water, it was probably stress, but his situation was everything stress related and having spots would add to the stress.  
Quickly washing his face he knew he couldn’t do anything with it, but ignore it.

Still he knew it was there, and it was going to irritate him to hell.

He walked towards the kitchens, which seemed to be the meeting area, since Hunk rarely left the place unless it was doing the maintenance on the lions. The door slid open and he saw Allura and Coran discussing possible strategies, Lance wished they included them into the discussions Lance knew he could keep up.  
He glanced at Hunk who was trying to experiment with breakfast, before Hunk had herbs from the planet and that tasted really good, but in space he made cooks out of stalite to form the teleduv shells.  
Since they were in space, Lance knew that they were not going to get a good meal.  
Space goo it is.

Then his eyes landed on Pidge and he almost fell backwards, both Pidge and Keith looked like hell, and Lance knew he didn’t look any better, but fully taking it in how much the whole thing was really affecting them, hit him like a 8 wheeler.  
It was only three days since Shiro’s disappearance, and they were still going on as normal, they haven't even had a moment to rest or come to terms with what happened.

Lance sat down after getting a bowl of goo and thought on how everything seemed to happening to him, was this the universe's way of telling him it was fair? Compared to what the others were going through, and how Lance wouldn’t of cared as much since he didn’t know Shiro as well, was this giving him insight on how to relate to the others?

Lance didn’t know, but he still didn’t feel comfortable that everyone was deteriorating and all Keith and Allura was worried about was blazing forward fighting battles that they have no business fighting.  
When they first started as Voltron this passionate drive was helpful, but now it would only make things worse.

Speaking of Keith, he and Pidge seemed to be having an argument “Pidge have you found anything yet?” He seemed impatient and Lance ate his meal slowly, waiting for how this was going to fold out.  
It felt as if the atmosphere dropped and even Lance was wary of what was to come.

Pidge slammed her spork “No I havn’t-” Before she could finish, Keith cut in “Don’t you realise how much time we-”  
“Hey cool it!” Lance snapped, everyone looked at him surprised, he narrowed his eyes making them look very squinty, “It’s early in the morning, Keith. Wait for us to wake up first.” He attacked his goo “For crying out loud.”  
Keith blinked, he never realised how tired everyone was until Lance pointed it out, Keith felt tired himself, but if he stopped he wasn’t sure if he could get back up again.  
Pidge sent a grateful smile Lance’s way and began to eat her own food goo.

Lance pressed his lips together and began swirling the green jello around, then he took a breah and looked at Pidge “You’re doing good ya know, on finding Matt,” Pidge looked up sharply and her eyes were wide unbelieving, Lance gave a soft smile “You’re closer than the garrison ever hoped to be.” Pidge looked down, almost angry “I’m still not close-”  
“You’re closer now.” lance said abruptly knowing where her train of thought was going.  
“You have a picture and footage and you know he’s in a rebel group, and that’s more than we’ve known before.” Pidge nodded and Lance wondered if there was anything else to say, but then thought better of it and he had said enough.

Keith watched the whole confrontation and was instantly angry, how comes Lance had to butt in and show how he was better at everything? Keith let out a puff of breath.  
“We’re forming Voltron today.”  
Lance gave him a sharp look, really? That tone?  
“Yeah, no. We’re not. Team Voltron is taking a break.” Both Allura and keith looked offended at this.  
“What!? Lance do you have any concept of why we can’t stop? The galra are coming for us, for defeating their emperor we can’t just stop.”  
Lance pushed his plate away and stood up. Being talked down to while sitting down was degrading.  
Lance pointed at both of them “We tried it your way. And it was a disaster, right now all of us are emotionally drained and I’m not sure what Alteans do, but us humans need to you know grieve or have a break before something snaps.” Lance crossed his arms and saw both Allura and Keith were ready to argue.

But Hunk spoke up “I agree with Lance.”  
“What!?” Hunk ducked and Lance felt the need to step in to defend his friend but Hunk spoke first.  
“Look guys, I’m all for the,” he raised a fist “Team Voltron let’s go yeah, but right now we’ve tried everything and we’re not moving forward, like at all. Nothing's getting better and it’s been so long since I’ve felt this lost and now I just want everything to stop.” Pidge even stood up.  
“Me too, just a break, theres so many times I can look at Galra and Altean code before I toss my Laptop through an airlock, which is a bad idea because I need it.”  
Both Keith and Allura looked betrayed and Coran intervined “Allura, I do think it’s best to take a break.” Allura looked enraged “The galra are not taking a break-”  
“Yes they have, they’ve had to organise themselves and figure out what their next steps were since Zarkons fall. Allura they’ve had time to organise and figure themselves out, which is something you never allowed us to do.”  
Allura clenched her hands “Fine.” She began to walk away before the doors shut she gave them all a scathing look “Do whatever you want.”

 

Keith watched and looked guilty, Lance rolled his eyes and clapped his back “Come on Keith. We’re going to the training room.” Pidge and Hunk looked distraught but were following after them anyway “What you said we were taking a break!” Lance looked back with a grin.  
“Just trust me, Coran found a really nifty thing yesterday and I really want to try it.”  
One they were in the training room Lance instructed them to sit down, Keith grumbled but Lance grabbed his arm and pulled him down.  
“Okay, we’re going to play a game,” the others perked but Keith only grumbled more.  
Lance pulled out a small tub and took out a stick and Hunks eyes widened.  
“Is that…?” Lance beamed then blew into the hole and a multidimensional of bubbles appeared.  
Pidge looked beyond happy “Bubbles! Can I have a go?” Lance nodded “In a moment, I haven’t explained the game yet.” Keith did not look interested.  
“Okay I’m going to blow bubbles your way, and you can’t get hit, not by a single bubble.” Hunk and Pidge grinned looking positively competitive.  
“But-” Lance held up a finger “You can’t move, the only way to stop the bubbles is to blow them back.”  
Pidge was positively giddy, Keith only rolled his eyes.  
But he wasn’t getting up, that was a plus.  
Lance blew out the bubbles and Hunk and Pidge sat stoic face and managed to blow them back.  
But the second time…  
“I can’t do it!” Hunk wheezed bubbles peppering him all over, Pidge rested her hand on his shoulder “I’m smiling to much to concentrate,” Pidge made the mistake of looking it Keith, lips pursed and blowing all the bubbles back like no tomorrow. He was really getting into it.  
Lance felt himself relax and for once felt at ease, none of the problems went away but they felt more manageable, all you needed was a good laugh, or a good cry.  
“Hey Pidge!” Lance called and he turned ready to try and daily to blow the bubbles back.  
“It’s your turn!” Pidge leapt up from her seat.  
Lance turned to Keith and scooted next to him.  
“Having fun, Samurai?” Keith smiled at that “Surprisingly, yeah.”  
Lance nodded “Good.” They both watched as Pidge attacked Hunk with bubbles and he was powerless to stop it.  
“How are you holding up?” Lance asked and Keith tensed “Lance, I don’t want to talk about it.”  
Lance shrugged “Okay.” Keith gave him an irritated look.  
“What is with you? I thought you hated me.” Lance frowned “What? No I don’t, you infuriate me occasionally but I don’t hate you.” Keith’s lilac eyes narrowed “Please, as soon as you found out I was leader you’ve done nothing but make it difficult, you’ve been insubordinate on purpose only to prove you’re a better leader than me.” Lance’s eyes widened then he thought back on when he yelled at Keith.  
“To be fair, when have you made a good decision?” Lance said and began to raise a hand “Yesterday forcing us to form Voltron hen you kens we wern’t ready, going against Zarkon yourself, ignoring me and trying to steal quintessence only to get a smack down from a Druid, and then you were about to fight a bunch if androids inside of a bulmera when you knew that in doing so would end up in killing it, need I go on?” Keith was only curling up in himself and Lance lowered his hand and saw that out if everyone Keith probably knew the most that he couldn’t be a leader.  
Not with the way that he’s going.  
Lance leaned back, feeling more than ashamed but he was honest.  
And he felt better getting everything of his chest.  
Giving a glance at Keith he sighed “But Hunk told me how you calmed him down when you went to get the scoltrite from that whale thing, and Shiro knew you could be a leader and so did Black,” Lance shrugged “All of it points to you and nobody else so we’re just going to have to sit and take it.” Keith clenched his fists “It’s not like I wanted this.”  
“What?” Keith glared at him, his voice getting dangerously low.  
“I didn’t ask to be leader, and I’m more than aware than anyone, that I don’t have what it takes. I’m sick of being compared to Shiro by Allura and I hate that you’re all looking at me like I’ll make a mistake and I’m just so sick of it!” Keith looked away.  
“If you could suddenly pilot the black lion I would GLADLY relinquish that title, I don’t have to take this anymore-” Lance swallowed and knew he had to do damage control but why could he say?  
“Keith? Listen I know it’s been hard but-”  
Suddenly the alarms started to resonate around the ship and Both Lance and Keith stood up and ran towards the  
Pidge ran behind them looking ven “And I wanted a break!”  
They all ran to the central control, while they saw Allura step up to the panel and type away on her screen. Lance as well as the others saw a ship appear out of nowhere in front of them. Keith stepped forward “What do we do? Do we attack!?”  
Allura looked confused and turned to all of them, directing her synopsis at Keith.  
“They’re Hailing us.”  
Lance glanced at the others “Well...What do we do? Open up a link and talk tea and custard creams?” Pidge frowned at the analogy and spoke instead for the others.  
“They don’t look like they're attacking, but it’s a bit suspicious.” Hunk looked nervous “What if we don’t respond right away? WOuld they find that insulting, would they attack us!?” Before Lance could say anything Keith placed a hand on Hunk shoulder.  
“It’s okay, Hunk. If they had a problem they would have attacked us already.” Hunk let out a breath of relief, but was still fidgety, Lance had to admit he felt anxious as well,  
“There’s no harm in responding, if we try to leave it would be obvious, what if it’s an ally?” Lance asked, Coran raised an eyebrow directed at Allura.

“We could give them a chance, Keith?” Keith scowled “I don’t like this. They snuck up on us too quietly…”  
Allura sighed “It’s out of my hands, do we open up a channel?” The others glanced at each other then nodded.

“I’m patching them through now.”

Once the screen flickered above them, the others shared a collective gasp.

The one who hailed them was a galra.

Everyone was stunned, Keith took a deep breath “You’re that Galra- who stole the Scoltrite.” Lance side glanced Keith beyond confused, what happened now?  
The Galra in question removed his helmet, long silvery hair spilled like water around his shoulders and a light purple face with lilac eyes looked at them warmly.

Lance was beyond speechless, this guy looked different than the other galra- his hair alone, but his eyes…  
But something about his smile seemed, odd...almost fake, he didn’t know why but this guy was making something in Lances chest tug in pain, something was wrong, this guy was seriously freaking him out.

“I have no knowledge of what you insinuate, young Paladin. I am Lotor new emperor of the Galra Empire, thank you paladins for killing my father and so I can take my place as rightful air.”  
Lance really had a bad feeling about all of this, this was wrong, so, so wrong. They defeated Zarkon- and for what? A new ruler to take over. How long do they have to keep doing this, would this ever end, would Voltron forever be needed?  
Lance was panicking he could feel it creeping along the edges of his vision. Taking a long breath, he tried to focus back on the conversation trying to latch onto something to keep him sane.

“...I am here to propose a peace treaty between both parties.” Lotor spoke smoothly, Lance could see Allura tense, her fists clenching by her sides. “A peace treaty?” She spoke just as falsely polite but luckily Lotor did not catch it.

“Both of our sides has suffered tremendous losses, both of our kings were sacrificed, and I feel as though we both cannot afford to lose anymore.”

“Princess, what do we do?” Lance asked discreetly, so far he did not trust a single thing this guy said, but what could they do?

“Why should we trust you?” Keith asked, just barrelling in as per freakin usual. Allura gave an exasperated sigh as Lance pinched the bridge of his nose.  
They were trying to be diplomatic.  
Keith never leaving eye contact, saw Lotor tilt his head back to relieve a boisterous laugh “So suspicious, of course I can’t fault you, being a galra myself.” Lotor laughter died down.

“I promise that there is no trickery on my part, we would discuss a treaty towards the Alpha system, you are aware of the planet called Gaia? It has peaceful laws that cannot be broken, I promise Princess Allura, there is no place any safer than this location.”

Allura took a breath “I give consent to these meeting grounds, but I do have conditions.” Lotor nodded “Of course, I do also. Both parties will be accompanied by two bodyguards.” Allura looked flabbergasted “What? You think I would separate from my team and further leave ourselves defenceless?”

“If it would help I would only bring one bodyguard to attend this meeting with us.”

Allura glanced down for a moment, before anyone could say anything she looked up.

 

“I agree to the terms.”

“Excellent!” Lotor sounded delighted, his smile showed it too “I’ll see you in 16 vargas.” And the channel cut abruptly.  
And the whole crew was in an uproar.

“Princess, why would you do that!”  
Pidge seemed the most upset “We can’t trust this guy, we do not even know what his intentions are.”  
Even Keith had to agree “He could be using this as a ploy, to strike us down while we’re ahead.”  
Hunk only looked worried “But what if he’s telling the truth? We could stop the war now.”  
“Hunk as much as anybody wished that was true, we have to be clever about this.”  
Pidge instantly interjected “Allura you can’t go.”  
Allura looked ready to argue her case when Keith spoke,  
“Pidge is right, right now we cannot even form Voltron we need you to make a wormhole so we can make a quick escape.” Allura’s eyes narrowed “Are you saying I’m not strong enough to take Lotor on myself?”  
“Of course not, if Shiro was here all of us would agree to let you go. But right now it’s too risky.”  
That was like a slap to the face and Allura looked down with a sigh.  
“It would make sense for me to go, as the Princess to go on diplomatic missions, he would be expecting me.”  
Coran glanced at the others he really did not want to lose Allura, not so close to losing Shiro as well.  
Pidge was silent until she moved over looking all too smug with themselves.  
“I think I know how to get you on the planet without you actually being there.”  
Allura and the others stepped together, besides Lance who was basically fiddling with his station wondering if Lotor was going to do some sneak attacks.  
“A hologram?” Keith asked thinking back on the blades if Mamora using his suit during the trials.  
“Nope.” Pidge looked way too please with themselves, the moved the template upwards and Hunk leaned down, looking very confused.  
“It’s just Lance.”  
Said boy looked up when his name was called “What?”

Pidge tapped the screen, and it shimmered, the visual changed over layering an image on top and the others gasped.

Lance raised an eyebrow seeing the others crowd around something on the other side of the room.  
“I think that’s settled.” Allura said leaning back up. Lance gave them all confused looks. “What’s happening now?”  
Allura placed her hands on her hips “You’re going to pay for all those unnecessary flirting.” Lance now looked uncomfortable “Allura…? Allura!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet, Lance reached out “Guys- HELP!”

Pidge, Hunk and Keith only watched, Hunk gave a salute and sobbed “It was nice knowing you Lance. It’s been an honour serving with you.”  
“Wha- HUNK!”

 

Lance looked very upset when he was sitting on Alluras bed “You know, if you wanted me to wear a dress, you could have said so.” he glanced down at his feet and saw the high heel strapped securely around his ankle, he hasn’t worn heels in a long time, he hoped he wouldn’t trip and accidentally break his neck.

“You make an excellent woman, Lance.” Lance smirked at that, the other’s had it in their head that since Allura can make wormholes it would be better if she stayed behind just in case, while Coran, Keith and Lance travel there in the red lion as it was the fastest out of all the Lions.

Once Allura was done she gestured for Lance to look in the mirror, he was wearing her formal dress while Allura stayed in her usual armour.  
“You make a good double.” She said looking happy with her work, and so far they did look alike almost like twins...almost.  
Lance’s face fell when he compared their faces “This isn’t going to work.” Allura looked at him worry in her tone “Why? What’s wrong?”  
Lance gestured to himself “My eyes,” They weren’t like Alluras, they didn’t have a glowing light in the pupil, sure he had blue eyes but they were dulled by how squinty looking they looked.  
It made him more put out.

Allura rubbed at his arm “Lotor was looking through a screen, he wouldn’t know the difference.”

“But what if the wigs skews forward? Or if my ears fall off, and what about my voice? It’s a dead giveaway.” Allura brightened raising a finger “Oh, I know!” Lance flinched and watched her teeter away towards her cupboard,  
She soon came back with something that looked like a semi oval box, she opened the box and inside looked to be some sort of retainer. Lance pulled a face.  
“Don’t worry, it hasn’t been used. And it’s designed to fit any mouth.” Lance picked it up with a raised eyebrow and Allura gave him a go on gesture.  
He pushed it in, and it slitted into his mouth easily, and it was barely noticeable, dry on the roof of his mouth but manageable.  
“What does it- oh my god,” Lance gasped out, and heard his voice sounded higher than he was used to.  
Allura beamed “That’s perfect.”

Lance grinned with her then paused “Do I have to wear this dress? I mean couldn’t I wear your armour?” Allura looked way too smug with herself and crossed her arms. “No.”  
“Why not?”  
“Because I’m wearing it.”  
“Fair point.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay turned for next chapter!  
> p.s  
> I always wanted to write a story with Lance in a dress. I feel so happy I was able to include it- And it's related to the plot :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance makes these high heels work, and yes Tophats_and_Pinetrees their will be a smidge of Lancelot in the later chapters after doppleganger Shiro is revealed :3 you guys will have to be patient. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Once Lance stepped into the control room he almost laughed to see Keith give a double take.   
“Surprised, Keith?” Lance asked with a cocky smirk only to see Keith scowl “Your attitude is a dead giveaway.”   
Lance immediately felt put out, he crossed his arms slouching his neck forward “What do you mean, attitude!?”   
Pidge pointed at him “That. Allura doesn’t slouch, she is a princess.”   
Lance pulled a face, then stood straighter placing his hands in front of him.  
“And she doesn’t scowl.”  
“Nah, that’s just me.” Lance admitted even Allura raised an eyebrow towards him.

“I never realised how pouty you looked.” She admitted, now it seemed she was having second thoughts.  
Lance flushed then threw his hands up in the air “Will you stop harassing me all of you! Lotor won’t tell the difference anyway.” 

“We should be going soon, if we’re late he might take it as a threat.” Lance followed after Keith and Coran, then immediately wobbled almost falling on his face then righting himself before Keith could steady him.  
“I’m cool- it’s all good!” He snapped then started again, still a little shaky then began to walk a bit more confident.

Hunk only watched then glanced at Pidge “This is going to blow up in our faces, isn’t it?” Hunk saw Allura sharing his look of trepidation.  
“I’ve placed a camera on his brooch, if anything happens we will be able to assist them as soon as possible.” 

 

As soon as the shuttle left the hangar doors, Lance could feel his anxiety spike, he wished he had something to fidget with just to get all this excess energy out.  
“Will you stop moving?” Keith grouched after two minutes of Lance’s fidgeting, the boy gave Keith an annoyed look.  
“You would be fidgeting too if you had to wear a dress, god this is uncomfortable, no wonder Allura prefers the armor.”  
Keith sighed “If you keep squirming Lotor’s going to know somethings wrong.”  
“Don’t you think I’m freaking out enough as it is!” Lance snapped “There’s no need to rub it in.” he stopped moving and instead moved his glare to the window, Keith felt sorry for the window having the brunt of the Latino’s glare.  
Lance wasn’t uncomfortable because of the dress, it was only one of the reasons. If he failed this mission it’s not only Voltron that will lose another Paladin. Shiro would lose his only contact to this world, with no other way of getting out.  
So...no pressure.

“Lance You’re going to do fine,” Coran said from beside him, Lance didn’t have the heart to yell at Coran.   
“The last time I tried to act,” Lance admitted thinking back on the mermaid planet he and Hunk crash landed on and had to fight that venus fly trapagon.   
“It didn’t go so well...oh I need a code word- like if something's wrong I’ll be able to tell you guys discreetly.” Keith kept his eyes ahead and saw they were getting close to the designated planet.  
“So what would it be.” It took a moment for Lance to puzzle it over, before snapping his fingers.  
“Oh I know. If I laugh really obnoxiously and say ‘Lotor you’re so funny!’ Then I need help.”   
Both Coran and Keith looked confused, and it took Lance a moment to realise he was talking to aliens. They would not have realised he had made a white chicks joke especially how the occasion called for it.  
Before the two could even question made Lance’s weird ideas, Lance saw the planet getting closer. “We’re here.”

Lance prayed to whatever deity was listening that nothing went wrong on this mission. 

Lotor was standing beside someone much taller than he, but seemed to remain in the background, Lance frowned as he saw other ships hovering outside the Inn as if it were some parking lot.

“I had no idea that other life forms would still be coming here, it’s quite extraordinary.” Coran suddenly said “If this is still here then maybe that Sphinx is still hanging around…” Even Keith looked at Coran strangely “What Sphinx?” He asked after a moment's pause.  
Coran waved him off “Doesn’t matter, we should focus on Lotor, don’t worry Lance if you fail nothing will go wrong, except for causing another intergalactic war.”   
Lance almost stopped breathing.  
Keith stood and placed a hand on his shoulder “You’re going to do fine, but keep in mind, please don’t start a war.”   
A squeak bubbled past his throat “No problem.” Lance looked as if he was going into battle, and Keith could only give him a reassuring smile. 

Once they stepped out onto grainy sand, Lance felt a shiver through his spine. It was windy, and the air was thick with dust and heat, as soon as he saw Lotor’s eyes he had the horrible foreboding that they walked into a trap.  
“Princess Allura,” Lotor greeted and held out his hand, for a moment Lance was confused on why Lotor was addressing him.  
Hoping he didn’t hesitate too long, he extended his own expecting a handshake, seeing Lotor tilt his hand made him confused, was this some form of Galra handshake, only to tense when Lotor leaned down and lightly kiss his knuckles.   
“A pleasure to bask in your company, your highness.”

Lance had never been kissed on the hand before, it was jarring to say the least.   
Effortlessly getting over his shock, Lance took his hand back and smiled politely.  
“The pleasure is all mine uh, Emperor Lotor.” Lance felt his insides clench at calling Lotor an Emperor.   
“Lotor is just fine,” He said smoothly, and it must have been really cringey if even his bodyguard looked uncomfortable.  
“Lotor, how about we discuss this inside?” Lance suggested, and Lotor regretfully let go of Lance’s hand.   
The group began to make their way towards the Inn, which Lance saw was a floating structure with a staircase leading upwards towards the front door, and on either side of the large structure was wooden panels with mini ships tied to the side.  
It looked really impressive, something out of the treasure planet movie. 

Once they stepped inside the two paladins and advisor stared in amazement at the sheer variety of aliens and many species socializing, Lotor gestured towards a secluded table in the back and helped Lance into his seat, he wondered if Keith or Coran would get the same treatment.  
But when Keith and Coran made to sit, Lotor held up a hand “There is no need. The princess and I will have a discussion like adults, if you please.” It was not a question.  
Keith was stunned for a moment, then looked ready to murder.  
Tensing Lance held out a hand “It’s okay,” The others glanced at him surprised and he tried to act more confident than he felt. “You can still mingle with the people here.”   
Coran looked reluctant to move, but took Keiths arm and they, along with Lotors bodyguard, were dismissed.

Lance now felt less pressured to pretend so hard without Corans and keith's judgmental gazes.   
Lotor gave a soft sigh, everything about him seemed casual, but it was actually calculated, he was so smooth, but even that was thought out.  
“Ah, finally some privacy.” Lotor placed a hand on his devilishly handsome face and looked a Lance as if he were an open buffet.  
“Have I ever told you how stunning your eyes are?” He asked at a moment's paused, Lance wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.  
Wow that sounded, as if Lotor was flirting with him.

“Oh um, thank you, yours aren't too bad either.” what was he saying?  
Lotor chuckled “Such a cute little thing, but we have come here to discuss our treaty,”  
“Of course.” Nah, Lance was just imagining it.

“You understand that I simply can’t tell my people to stop fighting. The galra are a prideful race and our resources are nearly non existent if we let go of colonised planets my planet will be condemned.”   
Lance blinked, he had no idea that the galra would have a reason for doing the things they do…  
“Those planets are the only trading we have, without it my people would starve, we would all fall and noone would help us because we are Galra. My people will be targeted and attacked all because of tyranny of a delusional man.”  
Lance need a second to process, how can he respond if he didn’t have his thoughts clear?

Taking a breath he placed his hands on the table and looked as serious as he could “I know your side has dealt with many losses, but you have been ruthless too. All those soldiers were not just some mindless ai, they were people with families and homes with brothers and sisters, you have dealt your hand in bloodshed across the whole universe and you expect no penance?”  
Lotor looked stunned “Why Allura-”

“Are you that afraid of losing power? If that’s the case you’re no better than Zarkon, there has been Galra on whom I owe a great debt, and I know with Voltron we can make it that your people won’t suffer this transgression. We can protect you from anyone, but some may want justice, especially the people of the Bulmera.” 

“Princess, please. You’re asking me to tell the Galra to return to a life of poverty.”  
“That won’t happen, we’ll make sure of it. If you help to remove the Galra colonies then the freed planets will be overjoyed, they may not trust you at first but with time they might.”

Lotor looked about ready to complain but looked down exhaling a long puff of breath,  
“I had no idea on how stubborn you can be, I can concede that this idea isn’t all that bad, but what about justice, many Galra want revenge from the loss of Zarkon.”  
“Do you?”  
“What?”  
Lance eyebrows furrowed “Do you want revenge, Zarkon is your father, right?” Lotor nodded “Only in name,” He allowed and Lance pursed his lips then glanced down.

“There isn’t a day...that I don’t think of all the soldiers you lost. Everytime we- I mean Voltron fought and all those ships were destroyed, I always second guessed myself.” Lance glared at Lotor hoping he could get his point across, “Those Galra were only soldiers who were obeying orders and yet Zarkon didn’t care.” His eyes narrowed dangerously at Lotor who held a neutral expression.  
“If he did not, then why do you?” Lance asked at last, and felt irritated at the smirk returned his way.

“I believe in strength of numbers, united we stand strong but less numbers we fall.” Lance pressed his lips together, Lotor just quoted avengers. Even though he had to be serious he will admit this had to be the best moment of his life.  
“So if we were to come to an agreement of this treaty, how could you go about it?” Lance asked,   
When Lotor touched his hand, you can’t fault Lance for jumping in surprise, Lotor began to rub his fingers over cream coloured skin that gave Lance goosebumps. Lotors hand was a light purple and he did not appear to have any claws, Lance shivered at the contact while Lotor’s eyes seemed to pass right through him. 

“I do have a proposal that could unite our alliances, that way the Galra would listen to me and stand down, and the other races wouldn’t attack us for being vulnerable.”  
Final peace talk, Lance could do this, this was easy.  
“I’m listening.” 

“I propose that you, Princess Allura marry me.” 

The commotion of all the inhabitants of the inn seemed to grow louder, all the chatter blurring together and the sound of drink glasses being placed on tables and boisterous laughter being added to the clutter of noise, the smell of strange alcohol that tickled the back of Lance’s throat made him want to cough by how sweet the air tasted, he used that an excuse to not speak yet.  
The whole Inn carried on as normal unaware that Lance’s world was crashing down, the static in his ears was just clearing when he realised that Lotor was still waiting for his input.  
“A...A marriage…?” He heard that right still stunned “But, how-” Lance pulled back finally getting his thoughts coherent, Lotor was surprised by how Lance leaned back, his whole body language seemed negative, and Lotor appeared worried for a moment.  
“How- how is this benefitting me!?” Lance said outraged, mostly from the surprise but also on Alluras behalf, “The Galra destroyed Allur- my planet! He almost slipped but he was so angry he hoped that Lotor missed it “This wasn’t a whole, sorry about your house bro- This was a planet a culture, an entire civilization! Only two alteans had survived do you not know how hard that was? Realising how alone you are-” Lance was looking down and thought back on earth “TO find nobody like you, no one who can make you feel less alone, missing the scents the food the sky even the flowers, the water-” Lance was rambling but he could feel his own anxiety clouding his thoughts, he realised he was breathing frantically, why was it so hard to speak, to convey how he was feeling eloquently like most people?

“The only reason the culture is alive is because of Coran and al- me.” Lance grimaced he really had to stop doing that “How are you saying marrying me would be a fair trade? Are you just going to sweep all this carnage and suffering that your people had caused under the rug?”   
He was beyond pissed and wanted to say more but was interrupted.  
“Don’t you see? I would be able to give back so much more, I will pay for all the misdeeds that my father has inflicted on you.”  
Lance raised an eyebrow “How?”  
Lotor glanced at the other’s then leaned close like he was about to reveal a secret.  
“I know that some Alteans had survived Zarkons rein and have gone into hiding.” Lance’s eyes widened, if Allura heard that...that could change everything for her.

“And all the horrors that the Galra had done?” Lotor leaned back looking way too cool and calm “The alteans are not so innocent either.” Lance immediately felt defensive.  
“What?”   
“Think about it, Allrura,” His voice sounded sultry, Lance was lucky Lotor didn’t know his name, by calling him a different name it kept reminding Lance that he was pretending, Lotor was really charming when he wanted to be.  
“Why was Voltron created?” Lotor asked, for some reason the Galra loved their conspiracy theories, Lotor seemed ready to get a powerpoint ready with pictures and images and going to give the mind blowing theory.  
Lance felt a little apprehensive, he was all for theories but about Voltron, something told him Lotor was going to convert him or something.

“Alteans are supposed to be peaceful, they can even shape shift so they can form peaceful alliances, not to mention how far advanced Alteans really are. So that brings us back to Voltron, all those weapons and you call it a weapon for Peace. Please, it makes me laugh that you can be so naive, Princess.”  
...excuse me?

Lance visibly fumed and Lotor spoke quickly seeing how he was pushing all of Lance’s button.  
“Allura you truly have no idea what King Alfor or Zarkon were truly like, tell me, why would the Black Paladin fall so far? Why wouldn’t King Alfor destroy the lions, especially if they were so dangerous if they were to fall into the wrong hands?” Lance held his tongue, he couldn’t speak so much as he couldn’t exactly call anything out because he truly did not know.

What would Allura say?

I did not want to tell you the dark past of the Paladins, you had to bond with the lions on your own.

She knew...and she purposely withheld this information, even knowing Zarkon was a Black Paladin would have changed the outcome so much.  
Lotor continued on, unaware of breaking Lance’s thinkpan.  
“...Marry me, and with you by my side our alliance would make us look strong, the Galra wouldn't object to any of the demands that we would have, together we would be unstoppable.”

Lotor realised his mistake, when Lance’s blue eyes that seemed lost were staring at the table in front of him, flicker up and darken when they were trained on him.  
Poor choice of words.   
“Unstoppable?” Lance glowered and Lotor backpedaled and held his hands up placatingly, “Allura please, that is not what I meant, you must understand that we have to appear strong so-”  
“What if I said no?” Lance asked and made to stand up but Lotor grabbed his hand, the same one he kissed, he now held in a bruising grip, Lance grimaced.  
Lotor looked dark all of a sudden, and Lance knew he should not have dropped his guard, “Then you will be against me,” Lotor hissed, pulling Lances hand forward, lance stumbled forward into the table his other hand falling on the table to steady himself, Lotor grabbed his chin tilting his face upwards,  
Lance’s eyes narrowed in anger. “All of the Galra will destroy you, and your precious Paladins as fast as you could blink.”   
Lance grunted, trying to pull out of his grip, but Lotor only looked amused, then Lance locked eyes with him and his lips tilted into a smirk.  
Lotor hesitated wondering why the Princess was smiling all of a sudden.

It made Lotor flinch when Lance suddenly burst out laughing “Oh Lotor, You’re so funny!”   
Keith’s head whipped around so fast, Lance worried he broke something, both Coran and Keith moved forward understanding something was wrong, Lance gasped to see the Guard grab them both by the cusps of their necks and threw them backwards into a wall.

There was a tense silence as the hull of the Inns, inhabitants all grew silent, and as one like a mental command making them all snap, they lunged into an all out brawl.  
Peaceful planet his ass.  
Lotor was still confused on what Lance said before, unaware of Keith and Coran fighting his body guard in the corner- Was Keith gnawing on his ear?  
Lance shook his head, well tried to but Lotor still had his chin gripped. “How am I amusing?” He asked, and the same confused look reminded Lance of Keith when he didn’t get one of his jokes.  
“You underestimate the power of Voltron, if you think that you can have me as a trophy wife, oblivious to everything around me while you control Voltron behind my back.   
How do I know that you won’t use it against us, or keep dominating other worlds without my notice?”   
Coran had the bodyguard in a headlock, but where was Keith?

“Get him, Keith!” Coran yelled gaining Lotor’s attention, he let go of Lance who moved around the table and tried to run towards Coran but cried out when Lotor grabbed his hair- and pulled.  
Lance felt really weird having the wig suddenly removed, but Lotor’s face was priceless. Lance turned with a shaky grin “Uh, well that happened, well sorry to tell you this dude, but I’m a guy.” 

Lotor dropped the wig completely stunned, but came back to himself. He chuckled and raised his sword at Lance “I guess nobody's perfect.” Lance was to stunned to react, what did he just-  
Keith appeared and used his own bayard to slash against Lotors, Lance was brought back to reality when Keith glanced back.

“Lance! You okay!?” Lance nodded “Yeah-” He grabbed his bayard that he kept under his skirt and aimed it at Lotor who saw the flash of light as the bayard transformed into a gun.  
Lance shot him point blank, usually that would kill somebody, but Lotor only groaned and sat up looking only a little dazed. Lance faltered when Lotor spat in their direction “Get them!”   
By the time Coran got to their side, Lance saw that all of the Inns inhabitants were Galra in disguise.  
It was a trap all along.

“Quizneck!”   
“Move!” Keith yelled, grabbing Lance’s arm and tugged him towards the door, Keith swiped when any Galra got too close and Lance (now one handed, thanks Keith) Shot at any that may be a problem.  
And Coran, more like the incredible hulk, was able to slam each and every Galra in the face and used one Galra to knock back another one.  
Lance had to remind himself never to get on Corans bad side.   
Seriously, he was knocking them over like bowling balls, he forgot all about that handy Altean strength.

“Even if we make it outside we won’t make it to the ship in time!” Lance scowled, he was running through lots of scenarios and it was hopeless.

Lotor looked even more malicious than usual than he thought possible.  
“Don’t worry, I have a ride!” Keith looked way to smug. Of course he was in his element.

Lance for all but two seconds was confused, and he along with every Galra screamed when the entryway to the Inn was suddenly demolished and a red Lions head was peeking through, beyond ready to join the party.  
Oh of course, Red always answers Keith but when it’s Lance Blue can’t be bothered to lift a paw.

For a fragile moment, everyone stood stunned some were rooted to the spot, once everyone was still Lance noticed with a perplexed frown that one Galra was in the motion of hitting their fellow Galra, they was clearly some confusion in the fight.

Lance was the only one who broke the silence “Alright, baby!” he punched someone in the face and began to run towards the lion in high heels and lifting his skirts up high showing of his knee high stockings. Keith did not realise that Lance went all out, but decided not to point it out, instead he gave Lance an odd look when he ran towards the hangers.  
“It’s so weird to hear Alluras voice coming out of your mouth.” Lance almost stumbled “oh yeah,” he took out the lion piece as his hand held onto the wall of the lion's mouth and saw Coran running just towards them, tossing the mouthpiece behind him he extended his hand and grabbed Corans arm and hefted him inside.

He could feel Red was getting ready to fly away and the Mouth begin to close, Lance turned around to see Lotor staring at him while all the Galra scrambled forwards to get them.  
“Hey Lotor!” He called while holding up his middle finger “You ain’t putting a ring on this.”

Lotor practically crushed the table from under his intense grip than Lance fell back stunned “Let’s go, let's go!” Holy cow, he ran up the hanger and felt the lion rear up and give a final roar to the Galra before pouncing into the air.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took way too long, I literally could not focus on the words, jeez at least I managed to complete it, hah, so hope you guys enjoy :D

So soon as they left Red with the other lions in their hangers, Coran and Allura set to work on getting the ship away from the, not so peaceful, planet.  
Once they wormholed away and knew that Lotor had a lot of distance made the others give a sigh of relief.

Allura cut the silence and turned to the other three “That was way too close. And with Lotor taking over from Zarkon it shows that we are not done with the Galra empire just yet.” 

The others glanced at one another looking distraught, this wasn’t over? Shiro’s sacrifice meant nothing?  
“We have to form Voltron,” Allura continued on seeing their looks of distress “Before Lotor gains the upper hand.”  
Pidge sighed and slumped back at her station “Well we would have done it by now, if we could princess.” She sounded really bitter and Allura could not care for her tone.

Lance felt just as useless as the rest of them, he smiled uncertainly “Hey relax,” They looked up surprised when Lance beamed at them “We formed Voltron before, we’ll get it.” Keith’s face turned into a scowl.  
“If there’s a reason we’re not forming Voltron is because you aren’t taking this seriously.” He growled out, where the quiznack did that come from?   
“Um, I’m always serious you doughnut, I’m trying just as hard as everybody here.”  
“Keith, Lance now isn’t really-” Hunk tried to interject while trying to make himself look small.  
“No, you’re not.” Keith advanced forward and the atmosphere felt charged, Lance could feel the adrenaline, he was going to hit him, he was just waiting for it, but he was going to punch Keith in the face.  
“You’re sabotaging Voltron because you can’t stand the thought that there is a universe you’re not the leader, well guess what? You’re not good enough to be leader,”  
Lance glare flickered, the others watched as Keith was too angry at how his words were leaving an impact.  
“Instead of pitying yourself and dragging us all down, you should start pulling your own weight!”

The room was awkwardly quiet except for Keith panting once he gathered himself he was able to see the flash of hurt on Lance’s face, before it vanished and it felt like his whole expression flickered closed.  
Lance felt a little light headed, he was still shaking in a cold sweat wanting to hit something, Keith preferably, but something was holding him back the part of him that admitted Keith was right. He deserved the insult because it was true,

Lance wanted to form Voltron but it was his emotions that held him back.  
“Keith.” ALlura scolded “You have gone too far. Apologise to Lance right now.” She looked beyond furious, so did Pidge but Hunk only watched unsure of what to make of the whole thing.

Lance clenched and unclenched his fists, he knew he was holding everyone back, because he was bitter, he was envious and maybe a little pessimistic but he was trying goddammit!  
And yet that wasn’t enough.  
“You want to know why we can’t form Voltron?” He asked at last still breathing heavily and feeling as if his vision was clouding “Because I can’t quiznacking stand you!” Lance couldn’t breathe, all the words tumbled out like a tsunami- his brain was too busy panicking, shut up shut up, stop talking-stop talking,  
But he wasn’t in control.

“The only reason anybody knew my name at the garrison was from our supposed rivalry! I thought that was the only way you knew who I was, at least rivals mean we stand on the same ground as equals- but no. You self absorbed prick! You had no idea who I was or anyone else at the garrison you didn’t even care!  
You became leader because of Shiro how quiznacking bias is that!” Lance exploded, and the others watched it unfold like a disaster you couldn’t stop, it's like watching a building fall and crumble but knowing you couldn’t do anything but stand and watch and wait for the devastation.  
“When in the name of Pluto have you ever done anything that proved you are leader material! Every idea you’ve had almost had us killed!  
You almost blew our cover to steal quintessence.” Lance took a step forward, he was aware he was crying but he couldn’t help it.   
“You tried to attack the galra androids inside the bulmara when you knew that was a bad idea and you tried to fight zarkon alone, I mean are you stupid!? And when you and Allura left because you thought Zarkon was tracking you, indangering all of us!”   
Keith only stood eyes wide and felt every word cut like a knife, but Lance was far from done, he was breathing heavily his eyes narrowed to the point of making his usual vibrant blue eyes turn black.  
“I get that I screw up all the time, but you being leader? It’s a joke, your hot headed and you choose to fight first and ask questions later,” Lance saw how Keith wasn’t fighting back, and he saw with dawning horror that Keith looked resigned, as if...he thought this of himself.  
It only made Lance more angry.

But how else was he suppose to rid himself of this destructive Lava in his veins, Keith was always one step ahead of him, they weren’t even rivals that was Lance trying to prove that he was just as good as keith, but Keith being the Black Paladin now? How could he measure up to that?  
The feelings he felt weren’t as green as jealousy but it is as disgusting as bitterness that leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

Lance was in pain and he wanted Keith to react, he wanted him to hurt, he wanted him to feel everything Lance had felt from the Garrison to now, to feel just as worthless as he felt.  
He took a deep breath and even his tone was ugly, his face twitched into a snarl that he had no control over, and he knew what he spoke next was too far as everyone looked at Lance as if he was an alien.

“You will never be Shiro.”

And just like that, Lance knew that he destroyed something fragile. He couldn’t take the words back, how could he, it was on everyone's minds, but it was taboo something that should never be spoken out loud.

After a beat of silence, with only Lance breathing heavily then standing straight at the realisation of what he’d done. Lance could feel the weight of his words on his shoulders, he felt hollow and knew he screwed up big time.   
“Shit,” Lance looked away and scrubbed at his face, forgetting that he was crying, his voice sounded hoarse and it grated on his own ears.  
But Keith, he looked absolutely crestfallen, Lance turned around and walked out the doors sliding shut behind him.

All the words circled around his head, he didn’t mean it, there was no reason to yell at Keith-  
Lance stumbled against the wall, his breathing frantic and his vision blurred and blackening at the corners, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t move.  
Why was he here? What was the point? He slid down the wall his breaths getting more laboured, breathe in and out, long then short…  
If he vanished would they notice, unlike Keith with Allura he doubted they would care…  
Oh god, he had to keep breathing- He had to keep moving,

Standing up on shaky legs Lance managed to get to his room and fell onto his bed, his didn’t feel like sleeping. He couldn’t face Shiro, not with what he said to Keith.  
“Goddammit.” His voice cracked and Lance held his head between his hands,

How could he fix this?

Lance had waited until he knew all the others had went to sleep before he crept out, he walked towards deck where Coran showed him the star maps, it felt like a long walk and when Lance got closer to his destination he saw that the lights were already on.

He felt his breath catch in his throat, was it Keith? He peered around the corner to see that it wasn’t Keith.  
It was Allura.

She was sitting on the floor looking up at the stars. Lance blinked and stepped forward, hesitant at first then walked forward before sitting himself next to the the princess.  
“Hey,” He said after a while and Allura blinked “oh,” She turned to see Lance and gave an uncertain smile.  
“Lance, I did not expect to see you up at this hour,” She admitted. Lance bit his lip, Allura was going to chew him out about earlier, he just knew it.  
It was quiet, and Lance could see his hands shaking, he placed them underneath his thighs to hide it, at a length, Allura sighed.  
“Lance?”  
“Y-yeah?”

“I was watching,” Lance nodded “That brooch I placed on you was a camera, I saw the whole exchange between you and Lotor.” Lance looked stunned, he completely forgot about that but saw Allura was giving him a patient smile.  
“I would have punched him earlier on…” Lance was stunned then laughed in surprise “Oh man, he was so...intense Allura.” She smiled “Luckily you’re a boy, it would not have effected you as much.”  
“Ah, yeah, aha sure, everything he did, did not bother me, nope.” He nodded looking back to the stairs, Allura thought his exclamation was strange then thought better to call on it.  
“And also, you did really well talking to Lotor, I’m actually proud that you were so negotiable.” Lance raised an eyebrow “I only sat there,” Allura scoffed “If it were me I would call him a quiznacking-” She said another word that sounded unpronounceable “And I would have started a fight two ticks in. I’m proud of you.” Lance felt his cheeks flush, he had never been complimented before, besides his family..  
He felt the tears prick his eyes.

“I also heard about...about you talking on my behalf about Altea.” She admitted drawing her knees up to her chin, “I thought only Coran could understand, that I had no one to speak to about the loss I feel, but you...you described it and put everything I felt into words, especially after Lotor spoke as if Altea was only a little hiccup, it was as if you were speaking my thoughts, translating them back to him.” She turned to him and looked so sad, it caught Lance of guard to see it aimed at him.  
“Thank you, again. For going in my place.” Lance only licked his lips “um, no problem.” 

They both turned back to the stars and all was quiet and peaceful, Lance felt as if he could drop off to sleep here. But Allura spoke again, making him tense.

“Of course you have to talk to Keith.” he flinched, knowing that tone.  
“I know...I screwed up badly, but I doubt Keith would want to talk to me...after what I said today.” Allura nodded “I spoke to him earlier, Lance. Keith is trying just as much as everyone, ten times more, he really needs you right now.” Lance sighed “But he makes it so hard-”  
“I don’t care. You really hurt him today.”  
“What like you did, when you found out he was Galra?” That was the wrong thing to say and Lance felt like kicking himself.  
“I’m sorry, it’s just…” He felt like a fucking cactus.  
“I understand.” Allura said, and she sounded like she really did know how he felt, she placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I promise, it seems hard at first, but once you apologise and admit what you did wrong, it would be easier. Trust me.” She stood up and strode towards the door. She paused and turned back.

“You should go to bed.” Lance nodded but hours later, he never went to bed.  
He couldn’t sleep, he hurt enough people today, he did not want to accidently hurt Shiro too, by his own words, or blowing Shiro’s cover, since he can’t seem to do anything right.

 

The next morning, everyone did their usual, Hunk was working on the lions along with Coran to see how to fix them, themselves in case something were to happen where they need to do instant maintenance.  
Lance never bothered, he knew if something happened to his lion, which it won’t, Blue would tell him what to do like when they first met.  
Also he couldn’t be any different from working of constructing the garrison engines, to be a fighter pilot or a cargo pilot, you had to be able to work all stations of engineer, navigator and pilot in case something were to happen and you needed the use of those stations.

It wasn’t until Pidge gasped, from hunching over the table that she turned and waved at everyone else, gaining their attention.   
Lance and Hunk leaned over Pidges shoulder to look at her laptop “I’ve just received a distress signal right on the outskirts of the Beta Quadrant, the signal said they crash landed the place has loads of supplies it may even improve our ship, you never know.”  
Lance raised an eyebrow “You really want to hook up weird alien stuff to our ship? Remember last time? We had a jarvis mishap and Allura is still hung up over it.”  
“Who’s Jarvis?” Keith asked and Lance was about to explain, he opened his mouth...and let it fall shut.   
“Um, no one.” He said at last and looked back at the screen, “Besides supplies is their anything else? We should try to choose missions based on their priorities, like,” Lance held his hand up as if crossing it off “This mission could only use Lions, this one needs Voltron, that way we know what to avoid.” Hunk straighten up “Oh a ranking system.” Pidge snapped her fingers with a cool grin “But instead of a ranking S it’s a V, for Voltron!”  
“Now you’ve got it!” Lance beamed feeling proud but Keith spoke up bursting their bubble.

“We don’t have time to be selective, and to categorize these peoples calls for help into rankings. What if we think it’s a low level but we actually need Voltron?” Lance scowled he admit to admit that Keith had a point.  
But Shiro tried to do the same thing, start with small missions then get higher.

Pidge glanced at the both of them awkwardly “Okay…? Anyway Hunk helped me tweak with the Green Lion- He’s boosted it to five hours now!” She grinned and Lance even felt proud “Good one Hunk!” Lance clapped his back, but even more happy that they tried to change the subject.  
But Keith still didn’t look happy.  
But Hunk was beaming at the floor a faint red tinting his cheeks, “It was nothing really,” Lance rolled his eyes “As if, I can’t make heads or tails with the whole engineer stuff.”   
Well he knew some things since his older brother was a car repair man,   
Pidge began to continue what she was saying before about the up and coming mission.  
“Since we can’t form Voltron, I thought it would be better not having all the lions in one place, Coran said he was going to the Olkari Planet, since they were able to make a Teleduv to create a wormhole big enough, we thought they could help create some wayfinder to locate Shiro.”

Keith tensed “What? Is it possible?” Lance watched as Pidge was trying to figure out what to say “Hypothetically...We’re not sure how good the technology really is…”  
Lance zoned out, mostly from the guilt that began to fester, he wished he could just say.  
Hey Shiro is fine and dandy, no need to worry, Slav and I are working on bringing him back!

Yeah if he even mentioned Slav he knows the team would never let him live this down and take his credibility would go down the drain.  
“Alright,” Lance said and placed his hands on his hips, “I’ll guess I’m going to stay down here with the princess.” He felt pride hearing the familiar groans, it felt normal, as if they wouldn’t go their separate and possibly get hurt.

Keeping the negative thoughts away he even saw Allura’s lips curl, that has to be the first time he’s seen her smile.  
Once everyone was settled Lance saw Allura give Coran a hug “Coran, Stay safe,” Lance glanced at Pidge and Hunk leaving Coran and Allura to it.  
He saw that both of them were loading supplys into the lion, and seeing them smiling and even joking around filled him with worry.  
He walked up to Keith and kept his voice low “Keep them safe, Mullet.”   
“I will, Mother Duck. No need to nag me.” Lance clenched his fists. By how lackluster he sounded made Lance feel that same boiling rage.  
He took a breath.

“They’re my crew. Before this voltron thing, I was their fighter Pilot, Pidge my navigator and Hunk my engineer. There are my responsibility I know that, when Shiro was here, it was so easy to lean back and watch him command and see everyone fall into line and now...Please, don’t let anything happen to them.” Lance looked at Keith hoping he could convey this.

Keith looked surprised then his eyes narrowed looking focused and intense.

“Lance, I promise. I won’t let anyone get hurt.” Lance nodded and patted “Take care of yourself too, okay?” Keith nodded  
“I’ll be fine.”

Giving a polite smile, Lance walked over to the others to see if they needed any help, he leaned against Hunk and gave a low whistle “Jeez man, are you going to a celebrity feast or what?” Hunk gave him a serious look.  
“If anything bad happens,” He said promptly “I will be happy to know I’m surrounded by food.” Lance nodded, did not make him less worried, but good to know it’s still the same old Hunk.

“Okay then, How’s it going Pidge?” Pidge grinned and adjusted her glasses “Looking great!” She moved around to properly face him.  
“I’ve checked everything three times, Greens going to do me proud today, aren’t you girl?” Lance ruffled her hair “I guess you’re just happy to get out there and do something.”   
Pidge beamed “Yep, I’m sick of just lion around.”  
Lance almost did a spit take.

“Oh my god!” He felt way too proud, clapping her back “Pidge. Never change.”   
“That’s actually possible. I stopped growing since the garrison.” 

“Paladins! Prepare for extraction!” Allura called out to the others. Lance backed up “Alright, take care, Okay?” Pidge and Hunk waved “Get out of here Lance, don’t want you sucked out of an airlock.” 

Lance rolled his eyes “That happens one time!” He walked away and went back towards the control room where Allura was, watching over all the Paladins and Coran.

Lance sat in his usual seat and watched the cameras feeling his chest beat furiously, he hoped he would be okay, he really hoped that nothing went wrong.

Once the worm holes opened up, Lance saw them vanish, after a beat Allura stepped back from her post, “They’ll be gone in a few days. To make sure we’re both not compromised will take the first shift, then you after, understood?” 

Her voice sounded clipped, Lance knew she was worried and decided to nod.  
“Okay, uh...I’ll leave you to it.” He stood about to go the paused “Are you sure, I mean, you won’t be lonely or anything?” He asked at length. Allura gave a tired smile “I’ll have the mice with me.” Lance nodded awkwardly “Okay, just shout if you need anything.”

Once Lance walked towards his room, he sat on the bed going through the motions of his daily routine before pausing. What was he doing? He couldn’t sleep, if he did Shiro would be compromised. Lance wrapped his arms around himself, he couldn’t hurt Shiro because he always screwed up.   
He could probably talk to Slav, to get this off his chest, but...no, he would like to stay sane, thank you very much.

But what the heck could he do? Lance couldn’t stay on the bed, he would fall asleep, instead he sat up and began to walk around the castle.   
Lance kept his hands in his pockets and looked around the hallways, he wondered if he had no idea that this place had a pool, he wondered what other things he the castle has hidden away.

Walking along the corridors and trailed to a stop, he remembered chasing Ulaz here, he missed that guy.   
As Lance kept walking he began thinking of Ulaz and how strange he was compared to the other Galra he saw.

He remembered that all the mamourites were the same as Galra and yet different, they were a light purple almost pale, he wasn’t sure if the others had noticed this either.

He walked past a couple of doors that were locked, yippie, he found a library, oh yes to all the deities out there!  
His celebration was cut short when he opened a book to find it was all in altean.   
“Thank god the lions talk to me through telepathy, if everything was Altean I would have been screwed.”

Leaving the library alone, he began to walk further ahead, a stray thought almost made him turn back around, Allura would kill him if he got lost.  
As soon as he passed another door, and was about to call it quits, Lance took two steps back to realise that the door wasn’t locked.

Light seeped through the room once it slid open, he looked unimpressed at first until his eyes landed on its contents.  
“Oh my crow-”

 

Allura was in the control room feeling her eyelids grow heavy, she really needed to sleep, she stood straight with her arms crossed and her finger inconsistently tapping against her arm. Ever since Shiro’s disappearance she’s been nothing but nerves. Even now her mind was running through a dozen scenarios of how this could go wrong.  
And the only other person on this ship was Lance. She pouted into the void of space, don’t get her wrong she knew Lance could be serious...when he wanted to be.

“Allura!” Lance’s voice grew louder as did the sound of heavy footsteps, she turned confused to see the doors slide open and Lance appear with something in his hands.  
“Um…?” Lance beamed and sat at her station and spilled everything onto the floor.  
“We’re going to have a make-over!” He announced.

Allura sat beside him and watched as Lance organised everything he found, nose strips, face masks, purifying products, exfoliate all the works. And the very thing he seemed really keen on using.  
Nail polish.  
Allura was about to pick a colour before pausing “Wait...Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” Lance hummed “I’m not tired.”   
That was a lie and they both knew it. 

Allura picked the vanilla pink and Lance set to the task of painting her nails, as soon as he moved to her index finger he spoke “I can’t relax,” He dabbed the brush at the end of the bottle to take off the excess paint “Knowing they're out there. Without us…” Allura blinked when Lance stopped and took a red and white and uncapped the two.  
“My sister did this before,” He said quickly, almost desperate to change the subject “She called it a gradient.” He began to dot the bottom art of the nail pink and Allura felt surprise at how well it looked.

It looked like a crystallized effect by dabbing the colours from dark to light, Allura felt impressed “You’re very talented, Lance.”   
“Thanks,” He sounded pleased and uncapped another bottle, but sounded subdued after “I’m not even done yet.” He hummed and Allura continued to watch him work, very interested in how he was able to make the colours look.  
“You know…” Lance said at length “Me and Hunk had been thinking…”   
“Oh?”  
“We were wondering about...what we were going to do after this is over, and if it will never be over, you have to admit that you should have back ups for the lions in case we need to retire.” Allura tensed “Lance?”  
“I’m not talking about soon, but we can’t fight forever, but if this gets resolved me and Hunk thought, how could we return to earth? Knowing everything that we know?” He shrugged, Allura bit her tongue for lashing out at Lance for his last remark because, he was right.  
Before Shiro’s vanishment she would not have thought about it, but now she knew they knew that the lions paladins aren’t replaceable,

Lance continued talking unaware of Allura’s thoughts taking a turn for the worse.  
“Hunk was talking about it, going to earth but I think after everything we’ve been through well….I mean I miss earth and with earth's technology I doubt we could visit you guys in space, since we’re so limited.” Lance looked up with an excited gleam in his eye “Hunk said he would go back to the mall,”  
“Does he?” Allura asked not expecting that, Lance nodded “Yep, He said he could probably work there, start his own business. And after working with the lions and the castle he could create his own dingey as he called it, it’s like a mini shuttle, so he could visit Shay whenever he wants. Since the garrison technology can’t compare to altean tech he decided to go the mall that way he’s halfway there.” Allura felt her heart warm at the thought and saw that Lance was almost done with her nails, Allura had the thought that maybe if Keith Pidge and Hunk stayed then she wouldn’t be so alone…  
“And what about you?” She asked at last, could Lance leave them all and return to Earth? He missed his family of course, but would he not want to visit them? Would he truly forget them?

Lance was finished with Alluras nails, and she felt awkward not knowing what to do next.  
Until she picked up the blue and black and took Lance’s nails, he blinked feeling stunned that Allura would do his nails.  
“I hope I can do this right.” Lance smiled patiently “Start with the middle colour first, then black and white after.” She nodded and began painting his nails, Lance was thinking on how to answer her earlier question “I’m not sure... on what I want to do...maybe, it would be nice going to the mall and opening a shop, I could open my own Spa, do you think lots of people would join?” Lance glanced upwards then his eyes flickered down again.  
“Possible,” Allura hummed nochimmidetly, “I mean I got all my treatments from the servants, we’re not sure people have that type of stuff during Zarkons rein.” Lance could hardly believe it.  
“I would have an open market, but before I need to make sure that all my products could work for the other aliens, I mean what if they were allergic, what if something harmless to them is deadly to me? I’ll never know…” Allura gave an exasperated huff “Lance, I believe that whatever you decide you’ll make the right choice. A Spa sounds so ideal for you.” Lance smiled “Heh, it was either Spa or fighter pilot, and now I’m pretty confident that I’d make a good fighter pilot, y’know when some people said they’ll retire they wanted a picket fence house and all that. Me I want a spa.” He had that passionate gleam in his eye, Allura couldn’t help but laugh.  
“I’ll even help you fund it.” Lance gave a toothy smile then looked down to his his nails were done.  
“Wow, Allura! This looks really good, maybe I should hire you?” He gave a playful wink that made Alluras smile fall “No thank you.”  
“Oh come on, I could give you discount.”  
“I think I’ll be fine.”

Allura was not expecting this, from being alone with Lance, Once their nails dried they decided to do each others make up,   
“I had fun dressing you up before, you really suited that dress.” Lance flushed but tried to keep his eyes closed when she began to lightly trace over his eyelid, “Thanks, I used to wear girly clothes with my sisters, what was scary was how I was their body shape so when it came to emergencies they would ask me to go clothes shopping for them.”  
Allura listened with interest, she never knew much about the blue paladin, she did not know about any of them really.  
She knew it would be better if she kept her distance.

“Hey Allura, can I do your hair?” Lance asked at length making her pause “um, the mice usually-”  
“And they do a terrific job, but right now I really am dying to see you in a plait.” He admitted, Allura let out a huff of amusement and turned around and felt Lance begin to pull her hair back and brush through the strands.  
And if there was a knot he wouldn’t just tug, he went through it gradually and it made Allura even more relaxed, she never realised how touch starved she was until someone was brushing her hair.  
It felt nice.

“Where did you learn to do this?” She asked aloud wondering why he was so talented, compared to the other Paladins, they didn’t seem to do the type of things that Lance did.  
“From my little sister, when my mom or the others were busy she would ask me. The first time I did it well, she started crying that’s how bad it was, so I began to practice like crazy, I was able to do so many plaits, French braids, the Elsa braid and everything in between,” Allura what he meant by Elsa braid  
“Usually I tossed in a flower here and there. All her friends at school was so envious.” Lance chuckled.  
Allura never realised that she liked listening to Lance talk about his family. “I can’t do that here. Everyone has short hair- Including Pidge, well there’s Keith, but if I even touched that Mullet he might bite my fingers off.” Allura laughed at the visual.  
Lance was silent again, and Allura felt that the silence was comforting. It wasn’t till a while later that she suddenly remembered why this felt so nostalgic.  
“I... remember my mother doing this.” Allura said, and felt Lance still behind her, she kept talking so she wouldn’t give him the wrong impression.  
“She used to do my hair like this, she passed away when I was young so I don’t remember much of her….Mostly everyone I told that always say that they’re sorry but I just think, why are they sorry? I mean it didn’t happen to them, and I barely knew her, can’t miss what I never had right? But then...In the streets of Altea I saw children with their mothers, or celebrating the day of mothers birth and I find myself...sad. But then I remember my Father, and Coran they were the parents of my life, I have never felt so lucky to have someone there for me.” Allura admitted, and felt that Lance was still tying individual strands of hair into plaits.  
“I was adopted.” Lance said and Allura blinked “What’s adopted?” Lance was silent before laughing “Oh, right I forgot um, adopted means, that I didn’t have a family, at first, my biological parents died or couldn’t raise me or something, and my current family are the people who took me in. Gave me a home. I have a mother now, and cousins and a little sister and bro, but at first I was so alone and I had no idea how to fit with them, it was completely awkward at first and at times I thought...when I did something wrong they would send me back.”  
“Back?”  
“To the orphanage, it’s where kids who don’t have any family goes, until someone adopts them or they’re old enough to leave on their own. I was one of the lucky ones.” Allura remained silent and bit her lip.  
“I’m so sorry we took you away from them.” Lance scoffed “What? No. Allura…” he sighed and stopped plaiting, it was all done anyway.  
“I don’t regret being here. Being a part of Voltron. I miss my family, true but I would rather miss them than lose them to Zarkon and his empire, this is actually my chance to show how much I appreciate them by trying to save them and all the other planets that need our help.” Lance smiled at Allura sadly “I just wish I had more to give to Voltron.” Allura blinked and moved around to face him.  
“Lance, we do need you as a part of this team, you don’t realise how much you contribute and it pains my heart to see that.” She hugged him close and Lance stiffened in surprise.  
“I’m sorry if I’ve seemed cold to you, but I appreciate the efforts you give to keep us smiling, ever since Shiro vanished I...I wanted to fall apart but knowing that you and the other paladins are here is giving me hope, that we can find Shiro especially what you said before.” Lance blinked, what he said? She leaned back with a smile.  
“That we can find Shiro, that he vanished but he could still be alive, without any evidence to suggest otherwise all we can do is keep looking.” Lance swallowed.  
“Yeah, we’ll find him Princess. I promise.” Allura gave a grateful smile then saw her reflection in the panel.  
“Oh my goodness, you really are good.” She said in awe looking at her hair plaited perfectly, Lance stuck up his chest. “Of course I’m good, what else would I be?”

Allura kept staring and Lance wondered if he ruined the moment, but Allura looked at him sadly “We should do this again sometime.” Lance couldn’t believe what he was hearing and he gave her a big toothy grin “We should.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N Summary: Guys you need to tell me if there's any mistakes in the chapters, I did write this on my phone since it doesn’t have google docs anymore, but thanks for reading so far but if something doesn’t make sense give me a shout.  
> There will be no chapters tommorow or after, so thats why I’m posing them all now.

 

Even after the mission, Keith still wasn’t talking to him. Lance tried to apologise but even he knew his words meant nothing. With a sigh he began walking to the training room, he knew it was either lack of sleep, or actually forming Voltron but he felt so frustrated, it wasn’t just Keith this anger was building for a long time.

He wondered why the hell he felt so infuriated all the time, this only happened rarely and on those times he went to the training room, satisfied to shoot a robot or two.

 

Once Lance begin the training sequence, he thought he would be able to vent, he had no idea the thing he would want to hit actually struck back so hard. He managed okay at the beginning but all too soon he was overwhelmed and was struck, he flew backwards with a gasp and was knocked unconscious.

And when he came to, it was to the feel if somebody holding him close, a soft breath tickling his neck. He felt so warm, whoever this was gave the best hugs. Lance sighed into the touch and felt all his anger evaporate into thin air.

For a moment he was confused especially when he opened his eyes to see Shiro, eyes downcast and glazed and Lance was straddling him, one hand gripping Shiro’s hair and his hips twitching occasionally.

Lance flushed, Whoa what a dream, he never thought it would be with Shiro.

“Lance…” He gasped and the blue Paladin shivered, oh wow what a dream, please don’t wake him up.

Until he slowly realised, wait it’s been awhile since he had a dream, didn’t he? because of the…

“Holy Quizneck!” Lance screeched falling backwards and landing on the floor ungracefully.

Shiro blinked surprised, then glanced at the floor where Lance was laying his hands still in the air awkwardly “Lance? Are you…?”

Lance instead covered his face with his hands, feeling beyond mortified, 

“Really? You make Keith leader, and you get it on with my evil twin. Jeez I’m learning so much about what type of person You are.” Lance growled and pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“Um What?” He looked really confused, which only irritated Lance further. Shiro stood up and tried to help Lance stand up, but the boy slapped his hand away. Shiro felt irritated at the attitude but he took a calming breath “What happened?” Shiro asked wondering why Lance was in such a mood.

Lance brushed himself off “Shouldn’t you be telling me?” Lance eyes flickered up and down, and Shiro could feel his ears turn pink, he rubbed the back of his neck “Well, uh-”

“Do not tell me, you’ve been getting freaky with my evil self?” Lance looked disgusted and Shiro felt shame. Shiro had a hard time looking in Lance’s eyes.

“I said this universe's Lance was clingy.” Lance frowned still looking confused “But I thought you meant….” He trailed of looking meekly embarrassed “Oh... _ oh _ …”

Does this mean that this universe's Shiro and Lance have…? 

He didn’t want to think about it.

“It doesn’t matter,” He shook his thoughts away, he was about to leave before pausing with a grimace. He couldn’t leave the room, it wasn’t his universe.

He looked back at Shiro who looked way too smug right now, Lance pouted “How has Lance been handling this?” Shiro flushed “Well, he uh-” 

Lance took a deep breath “I mean, me possessing him occasionally.” he did not want to know what was happening with Shiro right now.

Shiro coughed, looking relieved then serious “He calls them blackouts, but he hasn’t told the rest of the team, he knows who I am-” Lance’s eyes widened, that was bad thing right?

But Shiro didn’t look as stressed as he thought he would be.

“But if it happens too much he might realise what’s going on. I don’t know what he’d do if he found out.” Shiro placed a hand under his chin.

Lance blinked, beyond overwhelmed with this new information.

“Well...I can’t control it, unless you want me to stop sleeping?” He could, not going to sleep is simple…

But Shiro shook his head feverly “No, don’t do that, I’d rather you didn’t. Instead we should remove one of the variables, I have to get home, now. Before it’s too dangerous for the both of us.” Lance looked down, he was trying, Slav said he was close and slipped to Pidge about the androids planet, so far it’s been three days since Shiro’s disappearance and Lance could feel he was running out of time.

“Voltrons discussing new missions, and they want me and Lance to assassinate the Prince of the Galra Empire, Prince Lotor,” Lance looked up stunned, no way…

“And he’s the good guy here, and he’s the only hope to defeat Voltron, he can’t die here Lance.” That sounded so strange coming out of Shiro’s mouth.

“Lance I can’t murder somebody, if the team see me hesitating, I don’t know what they’d do,” Shiro for a moment sounded lost, Lance sighed then moved forward and sat on the bed, “A lot has happened in three days, huh?” he gave a breathy chuckle, Shiro blinked then shared his smile and sat beside him.

Lance placed a hand on his shoulder “Listen, I’m going to get you out of here, Slav is working like crazy on this wormhole theory, he says he can get it done in three days!” He bumped into Shiros shoulder “Isn’t that great? We have a set date, so you’re going to have to wait it out…” Shiro scoffed “I think I’ll be fine, it’s you I’m worried about.”  

“Me?” Lance knew he was being insulted “I can take care of myself.”

Shiro’s eyes narrowed and his voice changed from playful to senior officer “If you suddenly appeared here with the other members out there, they’ll know you’re not their Lance. If anything it would blow my cover, they’ll interrogate you thinking you were a spy, or experimented on you.”

Lance pulled a face “They wouldn’t do that…”

“Pidge would.” Lance inhaled suddenly feeling the weight of the situation “Okay, okay.” He looked away from Shiro and knew he was freaking out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

“We can figure this out, if I suddenly came back and the others are present...is the Lance is this world any different?” Would Lance have to act differently just like Shiro?

“Besides his obnoxious flirting?” Shiro asked crossing his arms “No. There’s not much difference.” Lance blinked and Shiro turned to see why Lance was silent all of a sudden, but the boy looked perplexed.

“Wow, all these insults Shiro, do I even want you back?” He joked but it came out flat, he grimaced.

“Lance are you okay?” 

“No- I think I’m...going back…” Lance's eyes widened

“Lance-”

 

Lance eyes slowly blinked open, and he felt even more tired than before. He sat up groggily and saw he was in the training room, Alone.

Lance sat up groggily and felt beyond irritated, for a moment the thought someone would be here, say oh Lance are you okay?   
Keith especially, since he uses the training deck more than he.   
Lance scowled and began to get up, feeling his whole body ache. How come when you need someone to be there, or do something to make you feel better, well no one's psychic and they can’t know what he needs all the time, but it still hurts.

Irritated Lance left the room and headed towards Slav’s study, it was the least he could do for Shiro.

 

Talking to Slav was well…he’d rather not talk about it, but hey there was progress.

Deep down Lance knew he had to stay awake, and talking to Slav was not helping. So who was the best person to hang out with to stay awake.

He almost stopped walking. Pidge.

The doors opened and Lance saw them sitting there on their laptop and lightly nodding off.    
Lance began to walk over and saw on top of the Blue lions paw, for some reason Pidge liked to do all her work near the lions, maybe she’s using their power as a wifi?

Lance noticed the game console that they bought at the Mall, he remembered Hunk (the sweetheart) Managed to create an universal cable that could be plugged into the castle, he and Pidge were ecstatic and played for hours.

Lance really fancied a simple game of ping pong, he needed something to mess around on without much input on thought.

He began to play the game and heard Pidge give an inhuman grumble, She turned slowly giving an irritated scowl “Why do you always annoy me?” She hissed and lance for a moment felt regret.

“I uh, want to play Ping Pong?” He asked and Pidge nodded “Sure.”

 

They sat beside each other and watched satisfied as they passed the ball back and forth, “So how's everything going?” He asked at last. Pidge sighed

“I would explain but you probably won’t understand-”   
“Hey!”   
“It’s not your fault man!” Pidge said hurriedly, almost losing the game to Lance “It’s just so many times talking and seeing someone's eyes glaze and saying ‘speak english-’ I’m just sick of filtering my words…”   
Lance glanced up, then heard the sounds. He lost again, Pidge snickered and he laughed also.

“I wouldn’t understand, I always have to act like I’m smarter than I am-” Pidge shook her head “Lance you’re plenty smart, it’s just a different smart compared to Hunk and me.” Lance smiled “Thanks Pidge.”

 

“What’s going on here?” both stiffened and turned to see Keith standing in the doorway with his hands crossed. Pidge instantly grabbed her laptop and went back to work, Lance glanced from Pidge to Keith, then he turned “Hey Keith,” He leaned back on the lion's paw, keith ignored him and instead addressed Pidge.

“Have you found anything yet?” Pidge looked sheepsih “No, but Slav mentioned something about an Endiod Planet-”   
“Pidge, I don’t think Slav can,” Pidge cut him off “There’s no harm looking into it, we have nothing left to lose.”    
Pidge glanced up “Also, I found something on Matt.” Even Lance glanced up at this, “You know the Gaia rebellion? I found that the ships and what the rebels were wearing strangely match Rolo’s ship, y’know the one Lance lost his lion too?”

“I remember.” Keith said coldly, and Lance grimaced “I admit that was not one of my proudest moments.”

Keith gave him a dirty look, then he looked back to Pidge “Hunk said dinners ready, you should take a break.” Pidge faced her computer “Already had a break.”   
“Did you now?” Keith asked placing a hand on his hip.

Lance snickered “Hey she only listens to me.” he teased but Keith's eyes narrowed “Since when did YOU last have a break? You look ready to fall over.” Lance scowled, he knew he looked tired but he didn’t need Keith, of all people, to point it out.

“Lance you should rest,” Keith said at last, and the boy inhaled “You can’t tell me what to do-”

“As your leader-”   
  


“Temporary leader.” Pidge said suddenly said and glared up at Keith, Lance wanted to lean away and even Keith looked stunned.

“Shiro may have said so, but he did not consult the rest of us. If anything I would have said that Allura should have been the Black Paladin, we don’t need you abusing your power and bossing us around. We’re all grieving here and I’m trying the best I can to find Matt who might give us some sort of clue on what the fuck is going on!”

Keith could barely speak “I didn’t mean to-” He looked like a deer in the headlights, Lance felt sorry for him.

He opened his mouth but Pidge interrupted him “Don’t. Please I’m sorry, it’s just...we don’t need you pretending to be the Black paladin, we don’t need Shiro’s replacement.” Keith flinched and Lance knew this was going too far.

“Everyone needs to try a lot harder because of Shiro’s disappearance and pull their own weight, especially you Lance.” Lance balked “What? Why are you bringing me into this!?” 

Pidge gave them both a dry look “Nobody is in their right mind, and you guys look like you’re about to collapse any second now.” 

Lance and Keith glanced at one another, Lance gave a hesitant smile but Keith looked away. Lance sighed, then chuckled at Pidge “I’d never thought that you would be the one telling me off.” Pidge grinned “Yeah,” She stood up after closing her laptop, and walked towards the doors “I’m going to get some food, and you guys,” She turned and gave them a mischivious look.

“Both need to apologise.” 

The door shut behind her, but then an ominous click sounded, further confirming that she locked the door.

“Wait- uh, Pidge?” The two looked panicked “Pidge!”

Lance stepped towards the doors and saw that they were locked, oh for crying out-

He turned back to Keith and glared, he was going to apologise, but not like this.

 

Keith was silent for a while, and Lance wondered why he wasn’t talking “Keith? Bud, you gonna say something?” 

Keith looked away and Lance took a breath “Jeez keith, you don’t have to be an asshole about it-” 

“Lance.” Keith said at last, making the boy go quiet, Keith looked...really mad. “I understand that you hate me, and I can’t do anything to change your opinion, but will you stop causing a mutiny with the other Paladins.” Lance scowled.

“Dude, I didn’t do anything, those opinions are Pidges own, not mine!” 

 

Lance moved towards the lions and sat on Blue’s paw, sitting this close always calmed him down. Keith stood there for a moment, then walked towards Lance. And sat beside him on the floor.

Lance tensed. Now would be the best time to do keith's hair- nope. No, he is not losing any figures.

“Keith, you could maybe...try talking to us, we could help if you told us what’s wrong.” Lance gave a sigh “I mean the reason I’m such an ass is because I want to know what you’re thinking.” He drew his legs up “It worked for my brother, we would have a shouting match everything would be out in the open, but not with you...you just sulk.” 

 

Keith began rubbing the back of his neck “I’m doing the best I can, but why...why won’t any of you guys listen to me?” Lance pressed his lips together “Well, mainly because everything you say makes me want to do the complete opposite.” He admitted.

Keith scowled “For god's sake, Lance.” 

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

“Shut up!” Keith snapped and turned around, Lance flinched back wondering if Keith was going to attack him.

“What can I do to make you stop fighting me!?” Keith growled out, and if this was a fanfiction it would be the best time to toss in a kiss and make this whole scenario even more complicated.

Thank god Lance wasn’t a fan of fanfictions.

 

“Well, how about a round.” Lance held a hand and Keith frowned confused “What?” Lance rolled his eyes “Dude, an arm wrestle. Winner takes all.” Lance sat on the floor and placed his arm on the Blue lions paw.

 

“If you win, I get to do whatever you say within reason!” Lance added hastily as if Keith were a misbehaving child.

“And if I win, then you get to stop acting like a jerk, okay?” Keith looked really confused but nodded “Alright.”

Keith clasped Lance’s hand and his eyes narrowed dangerously “2 out of three?” He asked and Lance nodded “Ready to Lose?”

“As if.”

Lance won the first round, from blatant cheating, but Keith slammed his hand down the second and the third.

“Son of a galra!” Lance cursed, Keith grinned but he looked as if he worked for the win.

“Are you satisfied?” he asked at last, when Lance was nursing his hand back to health, jesus does Keith have a hard grip.

Lance smirked “yep, I’m good.”

“What?” Keith could not believe it could be that easy.

 

“Yeah I feel so much better now.” He began to stretch “Nothing beats a good arm wrestle.” He leaned back against the lions paw and snuggled against the foot.

“Something's wrong with you. Really.” Keith said at last and Lance’s eyes that were closed one peeked open.

“Says the Galra.”

Keith leaned against him, but Lance was still watching him.

“What about you?”

“Hmm?”

“Did that make you feel better?” Lance elaborated, Keith opened his mouth, then paused “Yeah, a little bit.” Lance beamed “Great! Now let's talk about our feelings.”

“No,”   
“Argh come on Keith, we keep getting into fights and it’s not healthy, come on give me the benefit of a doubt.”

Keith was quiet and Lance raised an eyebrow “Okay. I’ll go first!”

“Lance-” Keith tried to stop him but the boy was on a roll.

 

“Keith, I work my butt off, and regardless of any obstacles, I studied so hard that I literally dream about the tests on the many times I could have failed,and miraculously I get into the garrison. And yet...all the teachers loved to point it out, that my being there was a fluke, that I would never be as good as you, and I wondered if I stopped coming to classes would anyone even care.” Keith did not know what to say, and Lance shook his head his face falling “Here I go, making it about me again, I don’t mean to take everything out on you but I’m sick of hearing if it weren’t for Keith dropping out you wouldn’t be a fighter pilot, you don’t have a chance compared to Keith, look at Keith waltzing through classes pass all the exams and getting high marks without lifting a finger.” Lance hugged himself “I tried not to be bitter.” Keith watched not speaking a word as Lance unraveled.

“I ignored you and tried to do my best, only to get second place every time.” 

 

“ And then all of a sudden everyone starts talking about our supposed rivalry, I even joked about it myself right until people started to notice  _ me _ . Oh hey you’re Lance right? The one who’s always a step behind Keith  _ every _ god damn time.”

Lance glanced at Keith “I tried not to let it get to me, but everyone talking about me because of you, and then when you left they said the only reason I was a fighter pilot was because you dropped out. Even when you were gone I was  _ still _ in your shadow!” Keith tensed when he heard Lance’s voice crack, but the boy took a shaky breath and composed himself.

Keith opened his mouth and wondered what he could say could help him “I’m sorry.” Lance gave a bitter.

“What? No you shouldn’t be sorry, it was everyone at the garrison.” Lance scrubbed his face “Those guys were the assholes but even though they were the ones putting weights on my back you were only, what would they call it? A pebble, it wasn’t really your fault but the ideal of you being better was what made everything tumble down. You weren’t even arrogant or humble about it. You just didn’t care.”

“Well I didn’t.” Lance blinked to see Keith copy his position on resting his arms on top of his kneecaps.

“I only joined the garrison because of Shiro,” Lance listened with rapt attention “My home life wasn’t...going so great. He said I needed an outlet, something to focus my frustrations on.” Keith sighed “I’ve always been violent, it’s what everybody said, I picked fights and was pretty reckless with everything.” Keith was rubbing circles at the back of his neck.

“With my background I couldn’t get accepted into universities, but Shiro...he saved me, basically he was at a talk at one of my schools and he saw potential with hoverboard.” 

 

Keith laughed at the memory “I did so well with the simulations, the garrison overlooked my past, they thought I would be the next Shiro, so I understand what you’re going through...they compared me to Shiro all the time.” Lance eyes widened, being compared to Shiro was much worse, if he thought Keith was on a high pedestal Shiro was astral terrestrial.

“I was good at my tests too, but not all of them some I was sure I failed on, I was a decent student I could do simulations pretty well but paper work? Not so much...and yet I passed every single one.” Lance clenched his hands “Those fucking-”

“Lance they didn’t do everything.” Keith tried to placate the teen “I was bad at strategic interventions, something that was imperative to have, that was all i was bad at.” Lance sighed “Fucking iverson.” Keith nodded “I never liked that guy either. I punched him in the face in the face when he said it was Shiros fault for the Kerberos mission.” Keith turned to see Lance eyes sparkle, the look caught him off guard.

 

“That was you!?”

Keith blinked “Uh, yeah.” Lance inhaled sharply “Dude! I have so much respect for you right now!” 

“It was only iverson.” Lance snorted “Only iverson, Pidge would love you so much right now.”

Keith looked down “Not now, she doesn’t.”

Lance paused then scooted closer to keith and wrapped his arms around his shoulder.

 

“Keith, everyone's tense and we’re attacking each other right now because we have no other outlet. You kinda have to give Pidge some slack, she’s trying her best to find Shiro AND Matt.”

Keith nodded as if he understood, but Lance leaned back “But I don’t have any excuse,” 

Lance sighed “I am sorry, for everything I’ve said, I shouldn’t have been attacking you like I have, it’s just bizarre, that everyone is falling apart and yet here you are, not even breaking a sweat, but everyone's getting worried, Allura said she talked to you and that hasn’t done anything...Keith we don’t know what else we could do.” 

 

Keith scowled “It wouldn’t be so hard if everyone would just get off my back!” Lance leaned back “um.”

“Of course I’m falling apart!” Keith’s eyes were suspiciously shiny “Shiro was like my brother, and he’s gone AGAINi! But this time I might  _ never _ get him back, and now I’m trying to be the leader he thought I could be- but that's just it, I can’t be leader-” Keith placed his hand over his head.

“Everyone's expecting everything out of me, but I’m not like Shiro! Alluras waiting for me to screw up, Hunk and Pidge have been so understanding but it’s not going to last, and you’re the only one that's honest!” Keith snapped off, waving his hand “At least with you there's no expectations but I can’t…” He heaved “I can’t keep doing this.” 

 

Shit! Shit!

No Lance was supposed to be the mentally unstable one, not Keith!

Lance was hesitant but then moved forward and enveloped Keith into a hug. 

“Keith, I’m sorry,” He felt the tremors and knew he was the cause, if Keith was a pebble, then Lance was a boulder.

A freakin inconvenient boulder.

“I felt angry and took it out on you, when that was the last thing you needed.” Lance leaned back and tried to make sure that Keith was listening.

“And I’ll help you with the leadership thing,” Lance shrugged “Since you clearly can’t do it alone, I’ll help take the load off.” 

Keith frowned “But isn’t that just you wanting to be-”   
“Co-Leader, I at least have a say but I won’t step on your toes, not on purpose anything.” 

Keith was quiet so Lance hummed and patted Keiths shoulder “You don’t have to say anything now, but I’m not taking your leadership away, Shiro wanted you to pilot the black lion so not to be in your now but, can I give you a hand?” He asked and outstretched his own hand.

 

Keith looked at his hand then back up to him, “Heh, is this the end of our rivalry?” He asked and Lance beamed “Yeah, it’s the start of a beautiful partnership.” Keith gave one of his rare soft smiles and took Lance’s hand into his own.

 

“Okay, Lance can you help me lead Voltron?” He asked and Lance helped pull him up on his feet.

“Thought you’d never ask.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when I improvise? Shit happens, seriously there was a clusterfuck on the notes, sheesh. Welp since last chapter I ‘resolved’ the fight, kinda, between Keith and Lance, see my surprise when I see my notes still milking out the whole team still upset with lance. I had to rewrite this whole thing, which is why it’s taking so long, sorry :p  
> Also this chapter has now helped me clear a plot hole I had, I had no idea how to...well not continue but get from Point A to Point B, but now it's figured, I'll update soon

  
  


“Paladins! To your hangers now!” Lance and Keith froze to hear Allura on the intercom, they both ran towards their hangers Pidge and Hunk meeting them up halfway, already in the motion of pulling on their armour.

As they got to the lions, Keith was the first to ask Allura as they all vacated the castle to fight of any attack.

“Allura what’s going on?”

“Lotor.” She growled, and Lance almost groaned out loud, quizneck his life, he felt exhausted, he barely slept at all and he could feel something was off, he felt okay just not a hundred percent, more like ninety nine, there was that one off that made him feel that something was up.

“Allura, Keith, we can’t fight Lotor, he has an entire fleet with him!” Pidge announced and he could tell that everyone felt worried. 

They all flew forward around the castle and saw the same ship that Lotor was on before, and Lance felt his heart plummet.

“Yippie, a whole Galra fleet just for me,” there were hundreds of them, and Lance felt as if they were at an unfair disadvantage.

He was going to die. And the last time he saw Shiro they had an argument, heh the guy wouldn’t even know what would have happened to Lance…

 

“We need to form Voltron,” Keith said and Lance knew he was just as terrified as the others “We have to do this now!”

“But…” 

Lance frowned when he saw the fleet just hold, waiting for them, it was weird to say the least.

 

Lance for once had no idea what the say, he said he would help Keith but he had no idea on how.

“Come on team wildcats! We can form Voltron, we were close before!” Lance admitted though it sounded lackluster. Until Hunks panicked voice caught their attention.

“Uh guys? They’re charging the ion cannon!” Lance eyes widened to see the beam of light aimed for them, they all dodged, but Lance scowled when he looked back on the fleet still not moving.

What the hell were they doing?

 

“We have to go-”   
“Move, move!” It was another one, but that was just it, it was only one. Why wasn’t the fleets attacking them properly.

“Keith, this doesn’t feel right…”

“I know,” Keith sounded irritated but Lance knew it wasn’t directed at him “Why are they just floating there just randomly shooting when...oh.” They all seemed to realise what was going on.

“ _ Oh.” _ Hunk sounded so offended and Allura’s voice growled just as angry as Keith usual is everyday.

“Their  _ mocking _ us!” 

His hands tightened on his controls and found himself glaring at the central fleet where Lotor was probably standing all smug. 

“Fucking Lotor!” Pidge snapped sending her own nature blast his way, Lance felt his lips tug into a grin, as it slammed into a fleet and the plant began to eat away into the metal.

Before Lance could give a whoop of joy, Keiths input dampered his mood.

“I have no Blades of Mamoura was on that.” Lance frowned “Keith, no don’t go there buddy, the blades would have told us by now if they still had anyone on the inside.”

“Just wait we’ll probably have a phone call from them.” Pidge grumbled and Lance could just picture it.

“We’re being hailed.” Allura said and sounded very displeased “Well pull it up, Lieutenant Allura.” 

Lance could hear the others give a pause. He could hear the tensions rising.

“Lance, I am not a lieute-”

“Oh my god!” Pidge screamed, Keith thankfully was able to yell over the comms “Not now, Pidge! And Allura please patch them through.” Keith sounded so done.

Lance could hear Hunk and Pidge babble, ‘To be continued we cannot let this lie!’

 

Lotor’s face flickered on the screens, any amusement was gone when Lance saw that perfect pristine face that was so perfect, it made Lance want to punch it in the face.

 

“Hello Dear Paladins!” He sounded so enthusiastic that Lance tried not to grit his teeth, it was a very bad habit to break.   
“I do hope that you have reconsidered my treaty?” he purred, and Lance felt his lips pull into a grimace, he knew that the others were pulling the same face.

Allura breathed through her nose “We had no need to reconsider as we opposed your _treaty_ in the first place.” she was snarling at the end of it.

 

Lotor looked surprised “Oh my Allura, I hoped you had, I don’t want to fight, really I don’t, it would be a waste of such a pretty face.” Before Allura could even begin to convey her disgust.

Lance butted in enraged “Hey! Lay of Buddy, only  _ I _ can flirt with my crew!” 

Everything was silent, but Lance was still fuming, Lotor’s eyes gazed over him lazily.

“Ah the little Paladin-”

“I’m actually the tallest bro, obviously a misconception. Go on.” Lotor paused his eyes squinting a little then continued, but Lance had a stray thought, if they were here, with Lotor what about the alternate universe? Was Shiro doing the same thing with the other Lotor...He hoped not.

“We meet again, obviously too soon for my liking.” Lance battered his eyelashes “Ah, did you enjoy our date so much you wanted another?” He teased, but Lotor looked extremely puzzled “What?”   
“You said you love my B-E-A-utiful blue eyes, couldn’t get enough of me, love?” Lance winked and Lotor looked confused, it was very effective.

Lotor then scowled “If you don’t surrender to the empire, we will take you down by force.” Lance gaze turned serious “Empire strikes back, Dun-Dun dun dun-”   
“Lance, can you not, when we’re about to get creamed by this alien dude?” Lance blinked out of whatever stupor he was in.

Hunk sounded….scared. How could he miss it in the bond, everyone was terrified and Lance was flirting!?   
Lance plastered a smile, he lost his mind a page ago, why stop now?

“Don’t worry, Hunk.” He said calmly while giving Lotor a spock eyelift special “This guy isn’t going to be a threat.”

Sick of feeling ignored, Lotor only raised an eyebrow of his own, and delivered a finishing blow that caught everyone of guard.

  
  


“You looked better with long hair, you should follow your black Paladins example.” 

Lance made the sound of a dying bird, while Pidge guffawed “Did the enemy just tell Lance to get a mullet!?” Lance was going to be sick.

“I think I’m having a heart attack, Mullets are so awful.” 

Keith was strangely quiet.

 

Lotor watched all of them with a raised eyebrow “I assumed that in the face of my fleet you would all be taking this seriously.”

“Dude we’re bonding right now!” Lance interrupted but Lotor’s face finally turned into a scowl, it made Lance feel pleased, the guy was an ugly scowler.

“Fine, if you wish to oppose me, darling.” he winked and Lance had no idea to who. But he knew without a doubt that Team Voltron felt uncomfortable.

 

They all separated quickly when the fleet began to take orders and attack.

 

Lance had never been so happy in his life to be a bad pilot because he was accidently dodging attacks and bumping into other fleets sending them spiraling.

But they were so fast and efficient Lance couldn’t keep track, he was aware he was speaking gibberish and freaking out.

He saw something to his right then gasped out “Keith! On your right!” Keith managed to dodge, but he didn’t say anything.

Wow harsh, was he ignoring him?

...Was it the Mullet thing?

 

A galra gave a lucky shot and Lance was not a happy munchkin “Oh, you want to fight lasers? I will fight your lasers with my laser-ah!” He ducked out of the way but crashed into another ship and began to spin in the milky way.

 

When Lance righted himself his whole vision became whoozy, yeah you know that ninety nine percent? SLing shotted all the way to seventy percent.

He shook it off and felt as if the galra were laughing at him.

He felt outraged “How dare you!? I hope you stand on a lego piece!” 

 

He heard a snicker “That’s a bit harsh isn’t it?” Lance beamed.

“Samurai! You’re talking to me again, now I can die happy!” He did a barrel roll out the way of some ships, damn he felt really loopy right now. He had to be serious right now, but his filter took a vacation to Ares and has never returned since like Shirley Valentine.

 

He crashed into a Galra ship that thrusted forwards and smashed into another one like a domino. “Are you okay?” Keith asked, and whoops he sounded worried, Lance must had sounded loopy too.

Instead he chuckled “I’m good and stuff,” Nope he wasn’t he did another spin and almost been sick, he felt like Hunk.

 

He iced a Galra ship and spun using his tail to flick it towards the others, he powered forward striking any in his way, sparing a glance he saw the others doing okay, Hunk and Allura were attacking the ion cannons, while Keith Pidge and Lance drew the attention to themselves.

But they couldn’t keep this up.

 

He attacked another group then whooped “Did you guys see that!?” He sounded hyper, Pidge groaned “Lance, we can’t concentrate!” He scowled at Pidge’s tone, it rubbed him the wrong way.

He grumbled under his breath “Oh okay, stop sleeping Lance, I don’t need you here, stop talking Lance you’re annoying any more requests!?” He hissed.

“What was that?”

 

“Nothing,” he was silent after that.

For some reason focusing his irritation in his flight made him erratic, and it was working in their favour, even the ships were hesitating as the three ships were being efficient, and the blue lion was all over the place.

“We can’t keep doing this, we need Voltron.” 

“We can’t do it Lance!” Pidge scowled, being the team's pessimistic as always. 

He heard Keith shout over the intercoms “We’re going to form Voltron, I know this has been hard,” Lance blinked to hear this coming out of Keiths mouth.

Lance could hear him take a breath “I know we’ve said some things that we’ve instantly regretted, and would rather forget, we lash out and don’t know how to apologise.”

 

Lance instantly felt uncomfortable and fidgeted in his chair, but Keith kept talking “But there is one thing we have in common…” Lance knew that he and the others were listening in rapt attention, this was the first time Keith was giving a speech.

“We all agree, that Lotor, is an asshole.” 

Everyone was stunned before laughing, it got to the point that they could multitask on the Galra and tease each other at the same time.

“Did Keith just…?” 

Pidge was squeaking “Yes, he just did.” 

 

That wasn’t an inspirational speech, but Lance felt good and hopeful, he just knew if they tried they could form Voltron.

“Come on and lets get Voltron formed already!” Lance chipped in pulling his lion back “I’m getting tired.”

Allura directed her question at Keith “Keith, if you’d do the honours?” Keith took a breath “Guys, Lets Form Voltron!”

“Yeah!”

 

Compared to last time, it wasn’t painful he could feel them connecting, even the fleets paused as they watched as Voltron slotted together seamlessly. Lance could hardly believe it.

He was a leg, he was officially the leg again- They formed Voltron!

“Alright, Baby!” Lance crowed in full out pleasure, the others actually matched his enthusiasm, he could feel it, even Keith was happy.

Voltron stood proud and Lance had the most smug grin ever, but what happened next was so surprising, Lance couldn’t tell you what happened even if he tried.

The formed sword and began to attack as usual, but for some reason Keiths fighting was different to Shiros, while Shiro as a champion used his right hand for most of his attacks, Shiro did too but also used his whole body, to translate, Lance was getting much more action than he realised he could,

Keith had formed shield and sword and there was a moment's paused before all the galra began to rush them.

“Lance, use a kick.” Lance froze, the last time they did that they fell, but in space they can’t fall.

Keith swung and Lance was able to strike enough Galra ships back, and then Hunk was able to raise his leg and do the same, it was like a strange russian dance.

He didn’t need that visual.

Thankful that the ion cannons were disabled thanks to both Hunk and Allura, Voltron managed to get to the main ship where Lotor was in and decided to attack relentlessly.

The same feeling that something was wrong began to make him worry.

 

With Zarkon he came out with a robo beast, but instead he was just sitting there until there was a flash of light.

 

“Lance use a kick.” Lance frowned, didn’t he already do it before and saw Hunk do the same, he wondered if he should tell Keith doing it twice wasn’t going to help, he used his whole lion as a thruster while Keith swiped through the soldiers and wait- weren’t they already near the main ship, why were they so far away?

“Uh guys?”

Until suddenly something crashed into them and the others cried out, “We lost part of the shield!” Pidge yelled and Lance frowned what the hell?

Suddenly something crashed into them and they fell backwards Lance and Hunk barely managed to right themselves.

 

Lance looked up in time to see a light appear on the main ship and then-

 

“Lance, use a kick.” Lance frowned “Wait-What?” He cried out when he didn’t move in time and the others were bombarded with Galra, that Hunk managed to kick instead.

“Come on Lance!” Keith called and Lance flinched, what the hell just happened

“Guys,” He sounded strained, he was suddenly really tired, his hands were shaking on the controls.

“Do you get the sense of deja vu?” He asked, something was off about all of this.

 

“Lance concentrate!” Lance was able to use his boosters to propel them forward getting to the ship, for the light to flash once more.

 

“Lance, use a kick-”

“No Keith dodge!”

“What?” Thankfully they trusted him enough to move and avoid the Galra “Guys somethings wrong- We’ve, we’ve been doing this a hundred times already!” 

“What are you talking about Lance? We need to fight-”

“No, we have literally repeated this lots of times, we can’t get near the main ship it keeps pushing us back.”

Everyone was silent, while he and Hunk were too busy using evasive maneuvers.

“Lance? Are you okay? You’re not going crazy on us?” Hunk sounded very concerned that Lance scowled “I’m telling you, every time that light goes we repeat I think it’s- oh god…” The light came from the main ship and…

 

“Lance, usa a kick.” 

 

Over, and over. It was never ending, they were stuck in a loop, sometimes they would make it to the ship even fight, but then it would start over, sometimes Lance repeated everything the others said to prove it was true, only to waste his time. He was wasting his breath by the time he had explained whatever was happening it would start over.

But why was he the only one who could remember?

 

“What is that?” Pidge suddenly called out, Lance gasped. That was new he looked up and saw an orange ship coming towards them, Lance eyes widened, this was really new.

He dared hope when the ship fired, and Keith shook out of his shock “Come on, we have to get in there.” Lance saw the light and sighed. It was just going to start over.

 

“Lance use- What the hell!?”

“Where did they come from?” 

 

Lance saw the orange ship was still there and fighting, he had no idea on what to think, his head was killing him…

But there was no denying it, the ship was kicking ass.

“Well let’s not let them do all the work, let’s kick some ass!” Voltron and the strange ship was able to kick some ass, even though the lost the wing- again, damn it was consistent, but they made it out of there.

 

Pidge called over the comms “The ship is hailing us,” They said once the fleet were gone for good, but Lance still felt it was too easy, especially with whatever the hell happened there.”

 

“Heya Princess.”

“Rolo!” Lance had to admit, he was surprised that this guy showed up, especially with their past. He was still a bit stingy but he was grateful that they came to save them.

 

“Am I glad to see you.” Pidge sounded so relieved “Thanks for coming.” Lance felt confusion “Wait, Pidge you called them?” Pidge nodded, then realised that Lance couldn’t see it.

“Yeah, I wanted to ask them about the Gaia Gang.”

“Can we talk about this inside?” Rolo asked “I don’t like being in the open, especially to close to a time bubble.”

“A time what?” Lance tensed, was that what that was?

 

“I’ll explain when we are all reinquainted.” Rolo sounded desperate and Keith caught onto it.

“You seem to be in a hurry,” He noted “And why should we trust you, you tried to steal the blue lion!” 

“Please, you can trust me, besides theres someone here that I want you to meet.”

“Who?”

 

Instead Rolo clicked off, leaving them with more questions than answers. Lance scowled “Well, what now?” Allura sighed “There’s nothing we can do, Coran? Could you open the hanger doors please?”

 

Once they disbanded and Rolo followed them inside, Lance had no idea what to expect, but when the doors opened to reveal Rolo, with a new companion that Lance did not recognise at all not even it’s species. But who came behind him was more shocking, a boy in orange with long brown shaggy hair that could rival Keith's mullet but looked nicer had a long staff that was bigger than him, walked off the catwalk and descended the steps. They was a loud gasp from his right and he turned to see Pidge’s eyes begin to water.

 

“Matt!?”

  
  



	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N I was going to post this yesterday, but it was 2 in the morning. I need sleep, hope you enjoyed.  
> Also thank you Straygami I do appreciate feedback because I don’t read over my posts (Because I change everything which is why it takes so long) As soon as the next couple of chapters are done I’m going to go over everything. Thanks again guys for telling me :D

Matt looked so shocked he even dropped his spear onto his foot, he cried out but ignored grabbing his foot because he couldn’t take his eyes of Pidge.  
“Katie!?”

They both ran forward and it was such a beautiful reunion, Lance thought it was a scene straight out of a hollywood movie.  
Pidge ran to Matt in slow motion, and they both collided “I finally found you!” Her voice cracked and Lance couldn’t stop the smile from his own face, he felt so happy for Pidge right now.  
He could see the heartbreak and relief that Pidge finally found her brother.

Until both of them leaned back wearing the same perplexed face. “What happened to your hair!?”

 

Soon the group was redirected towards the ceremoniol room with the long table, Lance and Keith sat next to each other while the others began to talk to one another, Hunk was watching Rolo and their friend, Isa who they later learned, like a hawk.  
Matt was talking about how the rebellion saved them and how lucky they were to get there one time, they soon talked about Voltron and then the conversation lead to Shiro.  
“Where is Shiro, anyway?” Matt asked looking around expecting the Paladin to pop up out of nowhere. Everyone remained silent.

“Um, it’s a long story…” Allura said, and she as well as the others explained what happened, and they saw Matts carefree smile fade, “He’s gone?”   
Lance wished he could say, no, but the others didn’t know where he was.  
“Slav mentioned an endiod planet.” Pidge said adjusting her glasses “I just need help as that planet is chaotic there’s no way we can breeze through, there's ion storms around the areas and...there may be black holes moving around there.” Lance took a long breath, black holes, oh god what if the other Shiro was swallowed up by a black hole?  
Was the other Shiro even alive? It has been four days, if they had to find him it should be now.

Matt looked at Pidge and narrowed his eyes “I’ll help you find him, but first you guys need all the help you can get.”   
Lance knew he was paying attention, but he could feel that his eyes were getting heavy.   
Allura leaned forward “Before you mentioned a time bubble?” Lance perked at this, then slumped again, he was too tired to even want to know what the heck happened there.  
Rolo nodded “We got information that the Galra extracted data from an alien mind, someone named Slav? And they have managed to construct a temporary time machine.”   
The whole team glanced at one another, “You’re serious...right?” Keith asked.  
Matt nodded “I know this sounds far fetched, but we’ve seen it, only an isolated area is affected, we saw the Galra use it as a tester, we saw the subject repeat themselves over and over and over again.” Lance placed a hand on his chin.  
“I know how that is, it was so annoying when Keith said ‘Lance use a kick!’ over and over again was driving me insane.” Now everyone was looking at him as if he was insane.  
“Um, what?” Pidge asked looking very spooked, Lance was too tired to see their unease.

“What? You guys experienced it too, we repeated ourselves about 30 times before Matt came in and saved us.”  
“Wha- how? How did you…?” Lance opened his eyes “hmm?” Now he saw everyones stuned faces.  
Even Keith was watching Lance closely “Lance, we didn’t repeat anything, we tried to fight Lotor and Matt came in…”  
Lance foggy brain couldn’t compute “What?”  
“Lance was the only one who experienced it...I’ve never heard of such a thing before…” Rolo admitted, his words wore grave and it woke Lance up enough to know, that experience those loops were not normal.  
“Um, okay so I know what happened so what? It’s not a bad thing...is it?” Matt crossed his arms “It’s an advantage, but how? If we knew how you did it, Voltron could be immune to the time bubble.” 

“Why did they create a time machine anyway? I mean out of all the weapons to have…” Pidge had her hands locked together and looked very puzzled.  
“Lotor mentioned that they have to look to the past to see the future,”  
“That doesn’t explain alot.” Hunk said and Lance nodded, and kept nodding...he was nodding off.  
“It means,” Matt said at length “That he plans to bring back Zarkon.” Allura’s eyes widened “What? Is that possible?”  
Isa who was silent, closed his eyes “It’s a possibility, he is experimenting with the fabric of time itself to see what his limits are, he’s stretching time to see how far back he can go.” Pidge frowned “Wait, but time machines need a high energy source, how the heck is he powering it.”  
“For the time being? Quintessence. But he plans on taking Voltron and using the lions, and it’s paladins as its batteries.”

Keith clenched his hands “So that’s another reason not to let Voltron fall into the Galra hands.” Allura scowled as well “That’s why he was so intent on marrying me, it was the only non lethal way to get to us…”  
Isa placed a hand on his chin “If we could figure out how to disable the weapon itself, we might be able to gain the upper hand.” Keith leaned back “But how? We just formed Voltron but this is just seven of us against the galra.” Isa was about to say that Keith can’t count because he and Rolo were helping, until he glanced at the Blue Paladin his eyes shut and breathing soflty.

“Um, I think you’re friend is asleep…” He said and the others glanced at Lance sharply “Lance!”   
Allura yell should have shocked him awake, but he still dozed on, even Hunk on his left chuckled nervously “Ah Lance, he really worn himself in that fight, right man?” Hunk nudged him, Lance hand slipped but he fell against Keith, still unmoving.  
“Lance…?”   
He was not waking up.

The others glanced at each other worry on their faces “Lance? Come on wake up,” Keith sounded strained and shook Lance a little too rough, but the boy only moved sluggishly like a ragdoll, drool spilling down his mouth.  
“Lance? Lance!”

 

Lance remembered something about a time machine, he tried to stay awake but his eyelids were getting heavy and they slipped shut,  
He opened his eyes and almost fell over, because one he was standing, and two everyone was standing together near the lions, and Shiro was on his right.  
Allura had her arms crossed and she was glaring right at him “Lance? Are you listening to me?”   
“Nope? Sorry I was dropping off there.” Not a lie, he felt tired no matter which universe he was in.  
Allura, thankfully did not seem to mind, as this appeared to be normal, it kinda peeved him off that he was no different regardless of what universe he was in.   
“You and Shiro are to head to the Beta quadrant, and interrogate all life forms and see if they are worthy enough of recruitment.” Alluras blue eyes looked cold, it didn’t look right on her pretty face.  
“If you deem them worthless then worthless, eliminate them, we have no use of worthless trash.”

Lance nodded, but on the inside he was freaking out “No mercy, got it, never pick mercy.” Pidge scowled, and Lance thought for sure she was onto him.  
“Lance, if you sing that overwatch song I swear to quiznack!” Lance pouted “I was thinking of Undertale actually, I thought we were meme bro’s, Pidge, you should know undertale.”  
She rolled her eyes “Or that, if the song gets stuck in my head I’ll kill you.” Lance looked her dead in the eye. And began to hum megalovania.  
Pidge gave an undignified screech, he loved seeing Pidge suffer.

Alluras eyebrow twitched, “Shiro look after Lance, if he gets eaten by something-”  
“Leave him.” Keith volunteered and Lance looked his way pulling a face “Love you too, dude.” He sounded mock hurt, but patted Shiro on the shoulder.  
“At least Shiro still loves me!” Shiro shook of his hand, his lip curling into a scowl, and moved away, Lance felt cold.  
“Oh alright then, well I’m off, don’t be too lonely without me princess!” Lance waved and headed towards his lion.

Lance climbed inside and felt nervous he hoped this blue lion would accept him, it seemed the black Lion was okay with Shiro so far…  
The others were watching the two before they all began to leave the hangers allowing the lions to leave.  
Keith leaned towards Hunk “Did Lance seem different to you just there?” Hunk shrugged “He was just hyper.”  
Allura walked ahead “Focus Paladins, there is much more we need to worry about.”  
“Lotor?” Pidge raised an eyebrow and Allura looked down at the green Paladin fondly “Yes, that Galra scum is getting on my last nerve, soon I will kill him and eradicate this universe of the last Galra.” Keith shifted and Allura gasped “Oh besides you Keith, I have no ill will towards you.”  
“She says now…” Pidge teased making Keith shove her forward “Quiet.”

 

Lance noticed that Shiro seemed quiet, in fact it felt as if everyone was giving him the silent treatment, who did he not piss off today!?  
“So we go in, blast a tree then blast out?” Lance asked, because seriously he had no idea what he should be doing in this universe, maybe Shiro had some pointers.  
He heard Shiro take a deep breath through the comms “Look, you don’t talk to me, nor I talk to you. Anything you ask will be related to this mission, and if what you say is stupid, I have full rights to, as you have put it, give you the ultimate purple bitch slap of death. Are we understood?”   
“Shiro-”  
“Are. We. Understood.” Shiro sounded really, really angry, Lance swallowed happy he was in his lion and far away from Shiro.  
“Um, I guess?” Shiro remained silent and Lance was afraid to say anything. Right until Lance saw a lime yellow planet come into view. It was beautiful, the clouds swirled around like a stained lollypop.  
He followed after the Black Lion and landed right beside him, he stepped outside the same time as Shiro, luckily that the atmosphere was breathable, and it was warm...kudos.

He saw that when Shiro stepped out, his back was turned. Lance stepped forward placing his hand on his shoulder.  
“Shiro, what’s been-”  
Shiro grabbed his hand and gripped it hard, making Lance grimace “I thought I told you not to...Lance?” Shiro’s eyes widened and he seemed too stunned to form words.  
Lance whimpered and Shiro let go of his hand looking apologetic “I’m sorry, I didn’t-”  
“It’s fine it's fine,” Lance shook his hand, “Wow, you have a hard grip.” Shiro’s lips twitched at that, then his smile fell. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were...when did you get here?”   
Lance looked up confused then realised what Shiro meant “In the Hanger before we left,” Shiro eyes widened, “That was you?” He sounded impressed and Lance visibly preened at the words.  
“I didn’t think you could act like that, but Lance, what took you so long, you were gone for days I thought,” Shiro stopped talking and Lance felt his heart plummet “You- I thought, you said I couldn’t compromise you, so I just stopped sleeping it’s no big deal-”  
“It is! I didn’t realise that you would stop, Lance I was worried!” Shiro grabbed his arm, and his eyes were narrowed and intense.  
“I had no idea what happened or if I would ever see you again, just...don’t do that again.” 

Lance felt guilt gnaw on his insides, he never thought that he was leaving Shiro alone.  
“I’m sorry…” Lance didn’t know what he looked or sounded like but he was surprised when Shiro pulled him into a hug, he was so solid that Lance easily leaned into it, too exhausted to think any better.  
Shiro felt warm and safe, he could feel when Shiro breathed and his voice sounded really close yet quiet.  
“You don’t have to apologise, it was my fault for not being clear.” Lance closed his eyes and gave a small huff.  
He pulled back, sadly he saw Shiro look at his hand his brow creased with worry Lance waved said hand “It’s fine,” He said with a shrug “I get worse.” Shiro shook his head “I thought you were Mclain.”  
Lance tilted his head “You call him by my last name?” Shiro shrugged “It makes it easier.”  
Lance looked ahead “huh, wait how did you know it was me? Without explaining?”

Shiro now looked awkward “Your eyes, I realised it after a while. Everyones eyes are colder here, but not yours.” Lance blinked, he did notice that with Allura earlier.  
Lance smiled uncertainly “Flattering,” He looked at the planet and sighed “I don’t really want to do this mission.”  
“Me neither, but we’re going to have to grit our teeth and bear it.” Lance nodded and both he and Shiro began to walk forward, most of the terrain consisted of large ridges and pillars, the rock was a pale orange and after a few narrow pathways, Lance hoped to god that this wasn’t a maze.  
“Hey, how are you doing here, like any problems at all?” Lance tried for small talk, he was nervous on finding anything on this planet.  
He heard Shiro give an aggravated huff “He’s being...difficult.” Shiro admitted and lance felt his face pull into a smile.  
“Difficult?” He asked “How so?” They began to climb up and bunch of ledges, Lance was about to jump up until Shiro’s hand came into view and pulled him up.  
“Mclain is thinking there’s no point in telling the others about me, especially as he’s not getting anything out of it.” Lance was silent for the moment, then he grimaced “A-anything? As in…?” Shiro nodded “Yep.”

Lance whistled placing his hands on his hips “And here I thought I was desperate.” That surprised a laugh from Shiro, success!  
Career as a comedian here he comes!

Lance continued walking “I really tried not to fall asleep, but I’m sorry if it made you more stressed out,”  
“Lance,” Shiro started but Lance interrupted “It was the least I could do, Shiro, I just wished I could have done more, not because you're a leader, but because...you well...you’re family. I mean I wish I was more useful because this is really not fair, being kidnapped by the galra, forced as a champion weapon thing, coming back to earth for a day to shoot back into space again? This is just the universe being an asshole!” Lance fumed and Shiro watched him silently, waiting it out. But truthfully, he was touched, just a little.

“So when you were worried about me screwing this up- and I would, I always do! I thought wow the one thing that could help Shiro out, was me not being in your way.” Lance trailed off with a sigh, “I guess I screwed that up too.” Shiro held out a hand but Lance cut him off looking at Shiro with a determined glint in his eye.  
“I want to help you Shiro, but I don’t know how…”   
Shiro looked ahead and saw that there was more terrain for them to overcome, trailing to a stop “Lance, you are helping me, by being here. I’ve never faced a mission like this before and I know it’s selfish, ‘I’m glad I’m not alone and,” He said never leaving eye contact “You help me enough, by being here and telling me if everyone is safe or not on the other side, are they safe.”  
“Well, uh, yeah.”  
Shiro crossed his arms and gave a warm smile “Then I’m glad,” He sounded it too “And for that you are helping me.” Lance rubbed at his eye “Well, okay then, um.” he grimaced “I made this awkward didn’t I.”  
“Just a little.”  
“Shit.” 

Shiro shook his head and was tempted to ruffle Lance’s hair “You did your best though.”   
Lance felt really mortified, why wasn’t Keith here? He would have done so much better…  
Suddenly both of the Paladins froze when they heard a shuffle, they both turned to see a small fluffy hybrid alien that looked like a little girl in pigtails approach them.  
She had a soft plushie that strangely resembled a frog, Shiro leaned down “Hey there, could you-”  
Lance pulled out his bayard and gave a warning shot a foot in front of her, she squeaked and scampered off crying to her mommy.  
Shiro turned to Lance sharply “Lance what the hell-”  
“This isn’t our universe, Shiro.” lance said looking perplexed “If we left then Voltron will come back and take this planet over, they’ll trust us and that will make their downfall much worse.”   
Shiro scowled “What if we changed that, what if Voltron just has the wrong ideas.”  
Lance shook his head “Are you sure you want to mess around with this? There could be consequences what if the changes here affect us? Change bad to good might echo back to our universe, have you seen Charmed?” Shiro pulled back “uh, can’t that that I do.”  
Lance rolled his eyes and began to explain “The sisters went into a dark mirror verse (And since there's no science to prove alternate dimensions I’m taking theories of television shows)” Shiro allowed him that and did not interrupt.  
“In that episode the Bad sisters did good, and because of that their worlds meshed and became unbalanced, say in the good version, if somebody did something like swearing they would lose a limb, same as the bad if someone did something good they got shot, something like that could happen to ours.”  
“You don’t know that,”  
“And you don’t know that would happen or not, Shiro...we shouldn’t chance it.”

Shiro sighed “Fine,” He began to walk ahead and Lance followed behind, Shiro was silent through their walk. Lance was worried in case he said something wrong.  
Until Shiro suddenly stopped walking.   
“Lance, get behind something.”

Lance instantly pressed himself behind the rock as Shiro did the same, they heard the sound of feet scuffling ahead, Lance peeked around the edge.  
He blinked to see that the worlds population, was infested with walking and talking frogs, well they resembled frogs with their dotted green skin and diamond eyes, it looked like they were doing a strange dance.

Until both Shiro and Lance saw with surprise when the very earth around them began to glow, then a pollen like substance floated into the air, all the frogs began to cap the pollen into bottles and place them into jars, Lance frowned remembering something flickering at the back of his mind.  
Those jars holding that stuff looked very familiar…  
“It’s quintessence.” Shiro suddenly said, Lance almost shouted he forgot that Shiro was there for a second.  
“Dude, I get that we’re in stealth mode, but please back up a bit.” Lance huffed, his eyes narrowing. Shiro did give him some space, just a little.  
“Maybe, if we get that jar, we could bring it back to Allura. That way she’ll get off both of our backs.”   
He heard Shiro chuckled “Man, I’ve missed you.” Lance blinked, that wasn’t random.  
“What makes you say that?” he asked while seeing a few openings to avoid the frogs, maybe if Shiro gives a distraction…  
“You remind me that everything's real, I keep thinking this is actually my world,” Lance turned to face Shiro looking stunned, he didn’t really mean that…?  
“I keep thinking that Voltron being the good guys was a dream, it’s worrying how much I fit in without the others suspecting a thing, maybe I was never good like I believed-”  
“Shiro.” Lance didn’t realise he grabbed the other’s arms “This is real, I’m here and the others are back home, trying to bring you back! We formed Voltron,” Lance’s voice cracked “Slav tipped of Pidge, we’re so close.” Lance eyes narrowed and shook Shiro once, to make sure he was listening.

“I’m going to get you home even if it kills me.” Shiro blinked looking into Lance’s eyes “Okay?” Shiro swallowed then nodded “Okay.”  
Shiro’s eyes flickered and looked towards the froggits, he saw they were about to leave.  
“They’re leaving, if we plan on grabbing that jar we should do it now.”  
Lance hummed “Any plan on stealing the quintec?” He shortened it because saying the full name so many times losses it’s charm. And spell check says no.

Lance had a few ideas on how to get it, either slip and slide in or use a distraction, but it depended on how dangerous the locals were.  
Shiro was looking at the field too “They look like farmers harvesting.” He noted, Lance snickered “There is so many jokes I can’t even pick one to make right now.”   
Shiro ignored him and continued to evaluate, “They seem to be loading up soon, we only have a few minutes.”  
Before Lance could tell Shiro his plans, the guy spoke first.

“Lance, I’ll cause a distraction and you get the jar,” Lance blinked “Wow, that was my idea but uh, are you sure you’ll be the distraction? I mean I’m good at them and you’re quicker so…”   
Shiro raised an eyebrow and Lance quickly looked away. “Okay, Okay don’t bite my ear off.”   
They both moved at the same time, Lance sneaked into the camp, and managed to get as close as he could without being seen, while he waited for Shiro to make his grand entrance.

Shiro walked towards the froggits.  
He just walked. Up to them.  
Even the froggits looked confused, as a very tall human made his way through their traveling group.  
“Hello there,” He waved and plastered that magazine poster boy smile “I’m Shiro a Paladin of Voltron.” The others looked wary at this.  
Lance could only stare, was that really how Shiro was going to cause a distraction?  
If he had it his way, Lance would be throwing fruit but okay, he could work with this.  
As all the froggits looked towards Shiro, Lance took his chance and began to sneak towards the wooden caravan as quietly as he could.  
“What brings you here, stranger?” He heard one of the froggits say, their voices were high pitched and made Lance’s ears ring.  
“Uh, I lost my traveling group, I was headed to a Bulmera but found myself here instead.” Lance had to admit Shiro was quick on his toes to think of a lie like that, he probably would have said something stupid. Reaching out he tentatively took the jar and winced when the glass made a noise as it was being lifted.  
He looked around relieved that all the froggits attention were on Shiro, still.

“What business do you have with the Bulmerea?” The froggit sounded suspicious, Lance watched the whole thing as he crept backwards away from the group.  
As Lance crept through the passageway around the camp he barely heard Shiro’s response.  
“Our castle is down, and we were hoping that one of the crystals would fix it.” 

Lance would have whistled if he could, Shiro was such a smooth liar, well a month of faking would have done that.  
As Lance finally moved around the camp, he saw the back of Shiro talking down to the froggit, the hard part was over with, now for Shiro to get back.  
“Would you like some food for your journey, traveler?” It asked, making Lance feel on edge, these Frog things were really friendly if they were harmless here, would that mean they were evil back on his planet, well note to self don’t visit any lime coloured planets they will have evil frogs.

“No,” he heard Shiro say politely “I should get back, thank you.” As soon as Shiro took a step back, one of the Froggits near the cart cried in outrage.

“Thief!” It pointed at Shiro it’s face once green began to reden with rage, Shiro took a shaky step back as he saw the other froggits one by one, as they looked at him in anger.  
“You dare steal from us!?”  
Shiro held up his hands “uh well, we didn’t,” Having nothing else to say, as he couldn’t deny the accusations. Shiro ran.

Huh, Leader of Voltron ran away from a pair of froggits. Lance day was getting better.

“I see you blue one!” Lance tensed, and saw they were looking right at him, he began to run before tumbling as he saw the little alien with the froggit teddy that he shot at before.  
Grinning maliciously.  
Lance huffed a breath as he tried to catch up with Shiro, He heard Shiro yell back to him “There’s a cave-Hurry!” Shiro waited back and let Lance go in first, as they got in deeper, and saw a narrow crack in the wall, Lance managed to squeeze through, but just barely.

There was a little bit more room, and Lance called back “Shiro, quick we can hide in here,” He kind of misjudged the size as he felt Shiro barely manage to push in, both of them pressed against the wall.  
Suddenly they heard the sound of scampering feet getting closer, Lance braced himself while Shiro moved closer and caged him in hiding Lance with his body.  
“Where did they go!?” A high pitched voice growled, Lance tried not to breathe.  
“Search everywhere.” Another voice yelled back and more sounds grew louder, louder than Lance’s heartbeat before fading away.

Everything was silent, once they realised that the enraged froggits weren’t coming back, Lance gave a sigh of relief, until he realised how close Shiro was.  
He coughed awkwardly “Um, Shiro?”  
“Shush.” Shiro suddenly said and once Lance glanced up he saw Shiro frowning while trying to listen, until he heard footsteps, Lance held his breath.  
The footsteps drew closer then he heard a sigh from the froggit “There’s nothing here, let's go.” 

Lance was tense, and felt very uncomfortable the wall with it’s jagged edges were digging into his palms and face, and Shiro’s armor was bruising his back.  
Soon Shiro pulled back,and began to move backwards out of the small space they escaped into, Lance followed him out, finding it more easier, and for once thankful that he was smaller.  
“We should head back,” Shiro said once he knew Lance was out, he turned towards the entrance watching for any more froggits to come after them.

Both began to make their way towards their lions, overly cautious along the way.  
Shiro glanced back at him “So how has everyone been doing back home.” Lance almost stumbled that Shiro referred to the other universe as home.  
It made Lance’s heart warm.   
“I forgot to tell you about everything.” He rubbed the back of his neck “I don’t know where to start.”

As they walked Lance began to recap over everything that had happened and when it got to the part where he dressed up as Allura, Shiro laughed out loud.  
“And Lotor bought that?” Shiro asked looking skeptical, Lance gave a huff and crossed his arms.  
“Just so you know, I made a very convincing Allura.”  
Shiro shook his head fondly “I’ll bet.”

Lance nudged Shiro with his shoulder, and got pushed back in return, Lance looked up to see the lions in view.

 

They made it back to the castle and Lance let Shiro brief Allura on everything.  
“Quintescence?” She raised an eyebrow looking very cynical “That could be very valuable, especially with Slav in our company.” Lance frowned “Slav?” Shiro gave him a warning look, but Allura thought this behaviour was normal.  
“He’s in the dungeon giving us as much information as his little mind contains, so much so with our technology we may create a weapon that could defeat the Galra once and for all.”  
Lance knew what type of weapon she was thinking about.

She then waved them off “You are dismissed, and Lance?” He turned back expecting anything but her smile “You did good, today.” He will admit he was thrown off.  
It was strange that all the members of Voltron in this universe acted almost...the same.  
Besides the mindset they had to conquer, they were no different, heck Lance was expecting some sort of Salute saying ‘Hail Voltron,’ or something.

For a moment he could forget that they were the bad guys.

Once Lance and Shiro were safely away, Shiro led them back to his room, the only place that he knew would guarantee some privacy.  
Shiro looked at Lance confused “Not that I’m not grateful, but how comes you haven't returned yet?” Lance frowned “Huh, usually it’s half an hour, but it’s been longer…” Lance frowned then his eyes widened.  
Shiro noticed “What is it?” He prompted, and Lance knew why he wasn’t ‘waking up’  
“I...haven’t slept in three days...it must be catching up.” He looked up and grimaced to see Shiro’s I’m so disappointed face.  
“Whoops?”

Shiro sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, he sat on the bed “Well, I can’t stop you but Lance you really need to sleep, what if something happens, you could bring the team down.” Lance scowled “I already get enough of that of Keith, Okay? I don’t need it from you.”  
“Keith?”

“We had a huge fight about it,” Lance snapped and began to pace, he didn’t mention this to Shiro back on the froggit planet but he might as well call it now.  
“Everything went to hell, he stopped talking to me, I apologised but I don’t even know if he forgives me or not I said some really horrible things- and I can’t make it up to him by being here!”  
Shiro crossed his arms “Lance I know you don’t agree with my decisions, but that doesn’t mean you take it out on everyone. I made Keith a leader for a reason-”  
Lance scoffed “Yeah, favoritism.” Shiro eyes flickered up “What was that?” Lance looked back, and saw he was treading on dangerous ground, but scowled, he said to the others if he had a complaint with Shiro he would tell him.  
“Face it, Shiro. How would you know that Hunk, or Pidge, or maybe even me could have possibly been the Black Paladin? It’s because Keith is the golden boy,”  
“You honestly belie-”  
“Come on! You helped him, trained him all because he was magically gifted while everyone else who had to study and work their ass off, stood by on the sidelines and watched!” Lance voice grew in volume, all the frustration spilling out.  
He felt sick.  
Shiro stood up and stepped closer “Lance that’s not what I planned, Keith is hard around the edges, you don’t understand what he’s been through, is going through, if you give him the chance he may surprise you.”   
Lance pressed his lips together his eyes scrunching up “I understand what you’re saying, but did you take my- anybody else’s feelings into account!? Keith has never made a good decision once, and technically he flunked out I was the only fighter cadet on the team, Pidge as my navigator and Hunk as my engineer, Pidge did most of the work while Hunk was demoted as the food guy, and yet you pick Keith- So what am I supposed to do Shiro? Am I not good enough!?”   
If anyone asked, Lance would say he wasn’t crying. Shiros eyes softened, and Lance hated it, he wanted the guy to be angry to lash out, Shiro would be more honest if he just shouted.  
“Lance that’s not what I thought, you are just important on this team-”  
“It doesn’t damn well feel like it.”  
“Will you shut up!?” Lance shut his mouth but he still looked offended at being told to shut up.  
Shiro sighed when he realised that Lance was not going to speak, “Keith saved me, he piloted the Black Lion, but that wasn’t the only reason. The truth is I know Keith is good enough, but this happened too soon and I didn’t think he could do it alone, Lance I really thought you could help him, you both worked so well as a team and I thought you would put everything aside and help him.” Shiro leaned back “I was wrong.”   
Lance felt a weight settle on his shoulders, feeling crestfallen doesn't cover it.  
Lance took a shaky breath and grimaced when his voice cracked “I wish I would wake up.” Lance turned around and walked away from Shiro the doors sliding open.  
“Lance, Wait-”

Lance walked back to his room and paused when he saw Keith. 

Should he antagonise him? Nah he wasn’t in the mood, right until he bumped shoulders with him.   
“Hey, watch it mullet!”   
Keith turned sharply “The fuck you say?”  
The brutality shocked Lance a little, but he squared up “You heard me-” Keith grabbed his arm and shoved him into the wall “You want a fight?” Keith growled, and Lance blinked, wow this universe Keith was more angry.  
Lance face twisted into an angry scowl “Yeah, since your stupid face keep offending me!”   
Antagonise it is.  
Keith pulled his arm back and Lance managed to duck and felt satisfied hearing Keith’s fist collide with the wall and the scream of outrage was priceless.  
Lance barely dodged another swing as Keith lunged towards him, Lance brought his arms up and gave a narrow right hook, slamming his fist against Keiths face, his victory was short lived as Keith retaliated.  
They began to dance around each other exchanging blows, Lance held nothing back, he’s always wanted to hit Keith and now he was, he didn’t even care he was being hit back,

Right until he was pulled back harshly, and Keith paused.  
“What is going on here?” It was Shiro. Of course it was Shiro.  
Keith scowled, not dropping his fists “The Quiznack wanted a go.” Shiro gave a weary sigh “We fight the Galra not each other. You have plenty of time in the training room, okay?” Keith rolled his eyes but walked away.

Lance shoved Shiro away once Keith was gone. “I didn’t need your help.”   
Shiro gave him a blank look “They hit harder in this universe.”  
“I noticed.”   
Lance glanced away, and felt awkward, Shiro helped him, he should apologise shouldn’t he?

“I’m sorry.” Lance looked up sharply surprised, Shiro wasn’t looking at him and Lance was honestly surprised that Shiro apologised.  
“What?”  
Shiro took a breath “I’m sorry, I should have talked to the team beforehand, instead of forcing my responsibility on Keith and leaving him and you guys in the aftermath.” Lance blinked then gave a tired smile “Hey, you’re only human.” Shiro gave him a dry look and Lance chuckled “Alright big guy, since you let out all of your feelings, c’mere.” Shiro looked suspicious.  
Lance let out a huff of breath “This,” He said slowly, as if talking to an alien “From my planet, Is called an invitation to a hug, Lay it on me.” Lance stood patiently with his arms outstretched wide.  
While Shiro glanced around making sure nobody was around, then stepped forward, Shiro wrapped his arms around him, Lance realised too late how much of a mistake it was as Shiro’s manly chest almost crushed his nose. But besides a bruised nose, Shiro was really good at giving hugs, if he kept this up, Lance might become addicted.

Shiro leaned away and Lance found that he missed the contact.  
Coughing loudly he leaned back with his hands on his hips.  
“There we go, apology accepted.” Lance lips tilted into a crooked smile “Jeez, you and Keith are cut from the same cloth.”  
Shiro raised an eyebrow “Meaning?”   
“You are both dumb and make mistakes, but I still love you guys regardless for it.” He grinned, making Shiro’s worried face lift into a tentative smile.  
Then it fell “Lance...if you’re still here, I need to warn you that the others are planning on fighting a planet, I need you to not get caught.”  
Lance frowned “What Planet?”  
Shiro next words shocked Lance to the core.  
“The Planet is called Gaia. It holds a lot of Rebellions who are fighting against Voltron.” Lance covered his mouth with his hand.

The rebellion were fighting against Voltron here? Weren’t they on their side regardless of which universe?  
“Lance? What is it?” Lance looked up, still feeling horrified and know Shiro can see it.  
“Shiro...I think we have a problem.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N Short is short, okay Lance is going to be in a three day Coma, heh, since he did not sleep for three days. So that’s going to be two more chapters of full on Shance and them trying to avoid the others. But before that I needed to show what the others were doing while Lance is asleep, and I didn’t want to change to POV so that’s why this chap is short.

Lance still slumbers…

Keith could only wait by his bedside, his thoughts buzzing like angry flies, Lance has been unconscious for a few hours now, he worried that they Blue Paladin might never wake up…  
Suddenly the doors opened and Keith turned to see Coran with a subdued look on his face.  
“Still not awake?” Keith sighed and glanced back to the slumbering Paladin “No.”   
Coran placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder “Pidge says that we are making way to the Endiod system, just to let you know.” Keith nodded “Okay. I’ll go and talk to her…” Keith stood up and looked to Coran “Can you watch over Lance for me?” Coran nodded “Of course,” Keith made to move but Coran stopped him.  
“Keith?”  
The boy turned around expectant, Coran gave a warm smile “He’ll be okay, both of them will.” Keiths eyes wavered and he nodded “Y-yeah, they will…” 

Before Keith could even step foot out of Lance’s room, he heard the sound of scampering feet and getting louder as they approached the room.  
“I need to speak with the Red Paladin!” Slave ran in, Keith instantly felt his good mood take a nose dive.  
“Slav!” He plastered on a crooked grin “What brings you here?” He asked forcing the smile to stay in place.  
“I have found an anomaly near the endorians galaxy in the Beta Quadrant!”   
Keith blinked “Is that a good thing?”  
Slav took a deep breath his hands moving all over the place it was making Keith dizzy “We’ll look into it! There is a 90% chance we may find the Black Paladin!”   
Keith was worried about the other 10 percent.

Unlike Slav, Pidge was no having a good time, they slammed their hands against the console in a fit of rage “God dammit! It’s like he doesn’t want to be found!”   
Hunk flinched then moved closer to Pidge “Okay, time for a break-” He tried but she turned snapping back at him. “No! Hunk I need-”  
“Food,” He cut her off placing his hands on his hips “You’re Hangry,”  
“Hangry?” Pidge looked momentarily confused and Hunk elaborated.  
“Angry, Hungry,” He explained then continued what he was going to say “And so, you need something to eat.”  
Huk managed to drag his friend towards the kitchen, sitting so long made Pidges legs turn to jelly, it wasn’t until they heard Keith run towards their way that Hunk and Pidge stopped what they were doing to see what made Keith run towards them.

“Guys! You gotta see this!” Pidge moved but Hunk grabbed the back of their shirt “Ah, ah ah,” He tutted grabbing a bowl and putting it in their hands and patted their back “Now, you can go.”  
Pidge groaned but kept walking while they ate at the same time.

They all followed without question but Hunk called back “What about Lance?”   
Keith paused then kept walking “I don’t want to wake him up, in case it’s a false alarm.” He did not want to tell them that he couldn’t wake Lance up even if he tried.  
Hunk and Pidge glanced at one another “What do you mean false alarm?” Keith took a breath “It’s Shiro, I think we’ve found him.”

The others finally made their way to the control room, and saw Allura turn to see them “We’re almost to the Endiods system, we’re lucky that they are a peaceful system that havn’t been discovered by the Galra yet…”  
Keith and the others glanced at one another.  
“How far are we?” Keith asked at last and Allura glanced at the window and the others saw a mixture of galaxies a mixture of purple and orange.  
“We’re here.”

The others went to their stations and began to look over their consoles “It’s like finding a needle in a galaxy.” Hunk groaned, Keith glanced his way “If we had a massive metal detector or magnet it would be easier.” Pidge chuckled at Keiths joke.  
“I’m scanning for any life forms, but Keith...it’s been four days, do you think-”  
“Don’t even finish that sentence Pidge.” She flinched and Keiths face fell “I’m sorry, but please I just...it’s Shiro, he can survive anything.”   
The others were quiet as they and Allura began to scan for anything in the system, they only found other ships hovering by, but so far nothing.  
“Wait- There’s a planet, he might be...well it doesn’t hurt to look?” Keith kept his hopes low, he doubted he would find anything.

Until Allura gasped “I found a heat signature,” Keiths head snapped up and Pidge was right behind Allura “It’s a few clicks away!” Allura moved the castle and at first, nothing.  
Just space and stars with the purple and orange galaxies.  
Then Hunk gasped “Oh my gosh is that?”  
Keith stood up “I’m going to get them!” He didn’t want to say Shiro in case it wasn’t.  
“We’ll get a cryopod ready, just in case.” Allura said, both Hunk and Pidge stood to move and ran towards the corridors leading to the med bay.

As soon as Keith left he began to run, he was desperate and felt his chest beat rapidly, it was him, they found him- they found Shiro!  
He ran towards Red as they were the fasted and leapt into his chair. “Come on Red, lets bring him home.” Keith was getting impatient when the airlock opened taking it’s sweet time,   
“Come on, come on!” He snapped and when it finally opened fully he pounced, his lion ran like the devil and flew towards the heat signature.  
As soon as he saw him Keith stopped in mid air. He took a breath “Shiro!” He flew forward the lion opening it’s mouth and snapped shut around the floating figure.

Pidge and Hunk were able to get a pod open, Hunk looked worried “Do you think it’s him? I mean what if it isn’t I don’t think Keith could handle it.” Pidge shrugged while hooking up the pod to a crystal.  
“He’ll be fine, I mean Keiths been okay so far,”  
“He fought Lance.” Pidge rolls her eyes and gave Hunk a look “He always fights Lance.”  
“Yeah but they looked like they were going to throw fists.” Hunk said scratching the back of his neck.  
Pidge paused “You know...I’m surprised that Keith hasn’t snapped yet, I mean he hasn’t had a total breakdown...sure he’s not the best leader but being compared to Shiro he hasn’t done that bad, there is some things he could improve on but he hasn’t screwed us over.”Pidge had a warm smile “If only he opened himself up more, he was so guarded he made it harder for all of us to grieve together, Allura and us tried to help him open up the nice way but he wouldn’t talk...Hunk he wasn’t even eating.” Hunk almost dropped whatever he was doing “What!?”  
Pidge grimaced, if anyone was offended no one was eating it would be Hunk.  
“Yeah, the only way he actually reacted or even showed he was still here was when Lance blew up at him, since Lance was taking the brunt of Keiths anger he barely yelled at us at all, heck after Lance exploded Keith started talking to Allura…” Hunk frowned “Since when were you into gossip?”  
“It’s not gossip, Hunk. It’s my team, I worry about all of you but I’m not...good at saying the right thing, and yet-”  
“Guys! Is that pod ready!” Keith yelled, making Pidge flinch then type away faster “Yeah, it is did you… oh my god!” Keith tried to walk as quick as he could, almost tripping, Hunk moved forward and held onto the mans other arm and helped Keith put him in the cryopod.  
“I...you…”  
Keith watched Hunk took the unconcious body and began to help him into the medical suit, Pidge looked away, She looked at Keith eyes wide. “You found him.” Keith shook his head “We found him...we finally found Shiro.” Hunk placed him in the pod and the door slipped shut as they saw Shiro began to rest.  
Keith watched his eyes flickering, Shiro was in the pod again, but he was here. Shiro was actually here.  
His knees buckled, luckily Hunk caught him “Wow, Buddy, do you need to go in the pod too?”   
Keith chuckled “No, I’m good...I think.” Hunk clapped his back “Come on, bro. You need some food goo in you,”  
“But Shiro-”  
Pidge cut in “Keith he’s here, he’s not going anywhere, and I’m here to watch over him.” Keith nodded “Kay, okay, lead the way Hunk.”  
“Dude has it been that long that you forgot where the kitchens were?” Keith chuckled and Pidge watched as both of them left the hanger.  
She glanced back at Shiro, unconscious and then frowned, Shiro’s eyes...did they look-  
Nah, it was only their imagination.

When Pidge called Allura on the comms that Shiro was back, she was so relieved that her legs gave out, she was shaking and felt tears spill from her eyes, the mice gathered around her worriedly, she petted Chalut “He’s here..” She gasped out then wiped her eyes “He’s back…” She was so happy she felt as if her heart would burst, she covered her face with her hand.  
“We found him…”

Coran sat next to Lance, truthfully he felt way out of his depth here, the team felt so disconnected, how they still formed Voltron he had no idea, it showed that even when they yelled at one another deep down they see themselves as a...he couldn’t say family. Unless, that is how he could describe them, arguing one moment then friends the next.  
“I wish you were awake Lance, I can’t speak for the others but it’s more...silent, without you not awake.” Coran sighed he was talking as if Lance was in a coma, but if he doesn’t wake up soon Lance would have to be put in a cryopod, Coran worried for his favourite Paladin.  
He won’t tell the others that.  
“We don’t talk as much as before, I miss our talks of Earth and Altea, I wasn’t sure if it helped you speaking of Earth, I know you miss it and given the chance you would leave if you could, but you stay so the Galra won’t take other like the other planets. You care so much and I feel as if the others can’t see that, you have so much to give…” Coran felt a little ridiculous, and foolish that the only way he could say this when Lance couldn’t here.  
Coran played wit his moustache “When you wake up, I’ll try harder to have these talks...so Please wake up.” Coran took Lance’s hand, he had a very bad feeling, Lance shouldn’t be asleep, he needs to wake up.  
“Please…”  
He has to wake up.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the Hiatus, after these onslaught of Chapters there will be ONE more but then the story will be finished- I am so close I feel like I'm running a marathon. Thanks for being patient.  
> Also AO3 takes away my Italics. It ruins my dialouge TT^TT

He was still here…?  
Lance saw Shiro watching him from the corner of his eye and what he could tell Shiro seemed worried, and if Shiro was worried that usually tended to be a bad sign.  
“Lance, you have to calm down-” He felt Shiro’s warm hand placed on his shoulder.  
Calm down? Lance was the personification of calm, if he was breathing really heavily and his hands were trembling, then that was nobody's business.  
“Don’t tell me to stay calm!” He sounded hysterical even to his own ears, Shiro pulled back eyes flashed with hurt.  
“What if I can’t go back? What if I’m stuck here!?”  
“Being stuck here...that sounds awful.” 

Lance grimaced and took a physical step back.   
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s just- so far we’ve been lucky because we’ve never seen the others but now if they see me, and you- shit Shiro what are we going to do!?” 

Shiro took a breath “Lance, Listen to me.” Lance was still shaking, he wrapped his own arms around himself trying to hold it together.  
“Lance,”   
He glanced up and saw Shiro’s gaze was unwavering.  
“We both can’t fight this, but you know you’re not alone, I’m still here.” Lance felt himself being grounded by Shiro’s words.  
“All we can do i wait it out, Slav is out there working on bringing us home. We’ll just have to trust that he’ll bring us back.”

Lance still looked unfocused “Lance, we’re going to be okay.”  
“Yeah, yeah. right , yeah…”   
Shiro patted him once and guided Lance towards the bed. Lance sat down and heaved the most depressing sigh, Shiro had ever heard from him.  
Where the hell was Coran when he needed him?  
“Maybe if you tried falling asleep? It might work both ways.”  
Lance nodded “Okay. it might…” But he didn’t know for sure if that would work or not.  
He shrugged off his hoodie and climbed into the bed.  
“Um Lance, this is my room…?”  
“Oh-sorry, I just can I stay here? I don’t want to really be alone in this universe?” Shiro nodded and climbed in with him.  
“Um Shiro.”  
“It’s my bed, I’m not sleeping on the floor.” Lance blinked then relaxed “I don’t mind, I used to share with my siblings all the time. You don’t mind do you?”  
“No, I’m fine.”   
Lance curled into a ball and watch as Shiro drew the cover over himself, Lance buried his face in the pillow.  
He thought he would fall asleep but he was too aware of Shiro.  
And thinking back on his freakout he felt mortified, and then sleeping in bed together, Lance flushed and curled further into the blankets.  
“I’m sorry.” He said outloud knowing he had to say something.  
“For what?” He heard Shiro move and the blankets ruffled, Lance took a breath “For freaking out there, so lame.” He raised an arm and covered his eyes.  
“I bet you wouldn’t do that,” He admitted “Freak out and stuff…” Shiro was silent which prompted Lance to glance up, and Shiro’s face looked...troubling.  
“I...that’s not true, I’ve...freaked out on more than one occasion. The, after the gladiator fights   
Everything seems so...false, as if all of this is an illusion and I’m going to wake up back in that Cell.”   
Shiro lifted up his arm and outstretched it towards the ceiling.   
“Sometimes I even look at myself and everyone and think, is this real? Most times I’m terrified I’ll fall asleep and wake up somewhere else.”  
Lance only stared “Dude, I had no idea-”  
Shiro chuckled “I never wanted anyone to know,” he let his hand fall “But being here, I’ve never felt so alone. Even though I’m surrounded by the team, the more fake everything feels. I don’t mind telling you because the more time goes on, the more I think I just made you up.”   
Lance smiled nervously “Made me up? Please my personality is too eccentric to be made up.” Shiro chuckled, Lance rolled over and faced Shiro.  
“But seriously, that’s what you’ve been feeling? All this time?”  
Shiro nodded and Lance had to admit it was pretty hardcore to just blurt out your feelings like that, but he saw the telltale sign of pink dusting Shiro’s cheeks.  
Huh, guess his fearless leader does get embarrassed after all.

“You’re the only constant here, so when you didn’t come back.”  
Lance’s hurt lurched, as if the tug of guilt was physically pulling at his insides, “Shiro- I didn’t mean to,” Lance tried to say but Shiro cut him off.  
“It’s okay, I’m not guilting you, it wasn’t your fault.”  
Shiro turned then seemed to realise who he was talking to, he coughed and turned back around.  
Lance smiled and closed his eyes feeling much more relax “Shiro, thank you. Out of everyone I’m glad that I’m here with you.” Shiro only hummed in acknoldgment, but Lance continued.  
“And you were right, now is not the time to lose our heads.” Shiro did not respond to that one, Lance opened one eye feeling his lips tug into a smile “Get it? Coz you’re the head of Voltron.”  
“Goodnight.”  
“Aw come on Shiro that was a good one!”   
He was still being ignored, so lance only rolled over and sighed, “Good night, Shiro.”

Lance thought that when he would fall asleep, he would wake up back home, not snuggling into a robotic arm. He knew he should move but it was warm. And Lance was too sleep deprived to care.  
Just as he was about to drift again he felt Shiro tense, it made him open his eyes and he saw that Shiro was moving away swiftly as if Lance farted in his sleep.  
Did he? You never knew what you did in your sleep…  
But Shiro was not looking at him, Shiro took his Paladin armour and walked into the bathroom.  
Lance sat up “Okay…” That just happened. He glanced around “You uh, you just get changed.”  
Lance awkwardly got up, he picked up his jacket from the floor, he frowned at his clothes. He didn’t wear his pajamas which meant he was going to have to wear these clothes that he slept in. gross.  
Shiro stepped back out the bathroom and Lance waved “Morning, uh Should I go to my room I mean- would it be safe?” Shiro was looking at him oddly “Shiro?”  
“Oh sorry- um, yeah I’ll walk you, Allura said there was a meeting today. You should be reading by then.” Lance shivered “urgh, Meetings they were horrible from the start now with Anti Voltron it’s going to be way worse.”  
Lance and Shiro vacated the bedroom and made their way towards Lance’s room, Shiro continued talking “Allura and Pidge, as well as Coran and the Olkairi were working on something, they took Slav and tortured and extracted all the data from his mind.” Lance looked horrified “They tortured slav!? I mean the guys annoying but not enough to torture.” Shiro looked like he did not agree.  
“Well he’s in the basement as our prisoner.”  
Lance almost stopped walking just recalling Lotor “Hey, Shiro do you happen to know if Allura has a time ma-”  
“Hey Shiro!” Both froze and turned to see coming towards them, usually Lance dislikes Keith at the best of times, but right now he has never not wanted to see that ugly mullet in his entire life.  
Keith frowned when he drew near, and up this close Lance saw a major difference to his Keith. This one had a scar across his eye and the skin that was ripped was purple.  
Lance forgot how to talk the scar was horrifying.  
“What are you guys doing?” He sounded suspicious, while Lance was trying to think of what to say that wouldn’t sound too dumb, Shiro beat him to it.  
“Me and Lance are alone in the morning and Lance is wearing the same clothes as yesterday. What do you think?” Lance eyes widened, Shiro did not just say that.  
Keith sniffed “Nice one Shiro, did not want to know that.”  
“You asked.”  
“And now I regret it, You guys should hurry up, Allura is getting antsy.” Keith walked back in the other direction, now looking disturbed.  
Lance was giving Shiro a dry look, and he looked surprised when he glanced his way.  
“What?”  
“What do you mean, what?” Lance mimicked “you just blurted that out, whoa.” 

Shiro grimaced “I’m sorry, it’s just- how they are here. It took me awhile to get it.” he admitted, making Lance scoff “What? Everyone is super sarcastic?” 

They finally appeared to Lance’s room and he stepped inside, “Can you wait a few minutes?” He asked, Shiro had his arms crossed “Sure, don’t take too long.” Lance nodded and stepped inside his room.  
Finally alone.  
He gave a long exhale “Okay,” He said out loud “I can do this, if Shiro could last weeks, so can I.”   
He was just worried about his team back home, were they okay without him there?  
He shrugged probably, Matt was there he could...Lance glanced down. Maybe no one cared since Matt was back he seemed the type of guy who knew what he was doing, he even went to space with Shiro and he was years younger than him.

Lance shook his head, and located his armour, he walked towards it and began to undress, just because he was here didn’t mean it was a bad thing. This could be useful, maybe find out a way to beat Lotor through the Mirrorverse here.  
Clipping his armour in place, Lance glanced in the mirror. How would the alternate Lance be like? Squinting his eyes he noticed he had some scars too, one on his neck to his collarbone, and another cut on his ear.  
What they hell did they do in this universe?

When Lance stepped outside Shiro was on his left leaning against the wall, Lance blinked “Shiro?”  
“Oh- Sorry,” he grinned “You took forever.”  
Lance took offense to that, “It takes a while to get this perfection.” He pointed to himself, Shiro snorted but wisely did not say a word.  
Allura being mad that her Paladins being late, were a universal thing apparently.   
“Shiro you are thirty ticks late.” Lance rolled his eyes “Use minutes and hours, you guys understand that, suddenly talking about ticks and quintans is just being cruel.”  
Coran frowned “What? We’ve always used-”  
“Na-ah-ah.” Lance interrupted “I will quote you said way back when, the galra coming for us on Arus will take three days.” Lance raised an eyebrow and Coran scowled “Every over life form using ticks and quintans, to understand them you should learn it.”   
Allura ignored them and prowled forward “Need I remind you that we are in a very tense situation, Pidge and I are overlooking the Blade’s of Mamoura’s production.” Lance glanced at Shiro, but he looked just as lost.  
“We have multiple projects, but this current one Pidge has personally helped out the construction. Which means you’ll be two Paladins down as Hunk will be assiting her with this. Shiro, Keith I want you to talk to Slav, he may have the information we need to create this weapon.”  
Lance had a horrible feeling he knew what she was talking about, Lance glanced around realising he wasn’t giving a job.  
“And what about me, Princess?” He asked and her eyes looked devoid “You’re with me.” She sounded pained.  
Lance beamed “Oh some alone time, why didn’t you ask me on a date like normal people Allura?”  
She rolled her eyes and waved her hand and a hologram appeared showing three cameras feeds to one room and it was shown a mouse-  
Oh, it was Chalutt!  
“Allura?” Keith asked “What is this exactly?” Allura grinned “Watch.” Lance did and saw Hunk and Pidge enter a room, Pidge raised an arm and seemed to push a button, the Mouse Chalut- began to move backwards, and a slice of cheese suddenly appeared.  
Lance eyes widened- that was it. That was the machine that Lotor used!  
And over and Over Chalutt ate the cheese unaware of what was going on.  
“We think if we find enough energy to be able to power the TRASP-”  
“TRASP?”  
“It’s an acronym.” Allura dismissed and did not further explain what it meant. “With this, we could bring back King Alfor,” her voice had a faraway wispy tone to it, she sounded so hopeful Lance did not see any difference between this Allura and his.  
“You can do that? Like is that possible?” He thought back to Matt, who announced that Lotor wanted to bring back Zarkon.  
“Uh, give or take, when are you planning to bring back Alfor? We should have a party and everything ready for em.” Lance hoped he was as good of a liar as he thought.  
Allura blinked “Well, by Pidge’s calculation it would take a month or two.”  
SHIT!

 

Allura spoke through her earing to Pidge and Hunks com “How is everything going Pidge?” Pidge glanced up from the cam.  
“Not good, it won’t be easy, Princess.” Pidge said adjusting her classes “So far the loops only last half an hour, it’s going to be a while to push it to that time without ripping the fabric of the time space continuum,”  
Allura did not look pleased with this “And how long will that take?” She asked and Pidge looked down “Four days.” Alluras eye twitched.  
“Excuse me?”  
Hunk piped up “To get all the quintessence stored, if you used your magic it could affect the quintessence.”  
“Why not use a synthesis?” Lance asked, and everyone turned to him, Coran began to fiddle with his moustache.  
“What do you mean, my lad?” Lance almost flushed being put on the spot.  
“Well, if you take a crystal from the bulmera and the quintescene from that Froggit planet, then if you mixed them up-”  
“That’s perfect! We could make something even more powerful that would combine the two!” Pidge looked beyond proud “Look at you, mr ‘Science goes over my head’.”  
Lance scoffed “It does, I can’t understand half the things you guys say.”  
Allura took a breath “It would take a few hours to get to the bulmera by wormhole.”  
Lance made the mistake of looking at Shiro, he looked furious, Lance mouthed, what? But Shiro only looked away.  
Lance didn’t see the problem here-  
oh...he was helping evil Voltron, whoops.

 

How could he forget? They were no different than his team…  
“Before we get there,” Allura started, breaking him from his thoughts “I recommend all of you doing the training regimen before you do your missions for today.”   
“Training what?” Lance asked outloud and heard Shiro inhale “You guys are to test yourselves to see who could be the next Black Paladin.”  
“Why?” Lance frowned at Shiro unaware the others watching their interaction “I thought it was Keith?”  
“Lance.”  
“He’s the best Pilot, your best bro.” Lance asked “So why should we bother?”

“He has a point!” Hunk suddenly said from the camera and everyone turned to face him, he wilted “I mean, I know I’m not Black Paladin material so can I step out and…?” Lance couldn’t help but smile, Hunk wasn’t different in whatever universe they were in.  
“No Hunk, you may not be excluded from these activities, Shiro admits that he thought Keith shall be his successor.” Allura’s eyes narrowed at Keith “But I thought differently, it would be more fair to test each Paladin equally and see who shall rightfully be the true Black Paladin.”

Lance pressed his lips together, well that happened he dared a look at Shiro, he looked calm but his nostrils flared. Oh he was pissed.  
“After your training has ended I trust that all of you would complete your missions.” Allura dismissed them and Lance followed Keith and Shiro towards the training room.

Hunk and Pidge were already there, maybe the labs were closer than he thought, once they filed inside the Paladins began to line up. Coran and Shiro stood in front of them like military sergeants.  
“Paladins,” Coran began puffing out his chest “You are all aware that most of you won’t last long in the field, and are quite replaceable.” Shiro’s jaw twitched at this and Lance almost grimaced for him.

 

“Except for the Black Paladin,” Coran continued “If you want to prove that your Black Paladin material, there are some basic skills you need to know.”   
Lance knew that he, as well as everyone else, became attentive at this.  
“First of is combat, there is no point being the Black Paladin just to get destroyed by a little punch.” Coran held up a finger and began to pace “Strategic improvisation, being part of a leader is making decisions that are just blurred between life or death, you must choose wisely with your team in mind. Speaking of team, if you can not lead or work as a team there is no point of of continuing with the exercise.”

Everybody else looked way too pumped for this exercise, while Lance was mostly freaking out.  
“Let’s start with the first exercise, combat!” Lance assumed this was against a gladiator, until Shiro and Coran took a step back and the doors shut in front of them slowly, Lance was confused until Coran spoke his smile too evil to be his usual Coran.  
“Against each other!””

Lance faltered “Wait, what?”

Lance barely managed to duck the incoming sword in time, Keith lunged towards him, his smile too sadistic and Lance tripped backwards activating his own bayard in time.  
He scowled when he realised he was too close to Keith to have a real shot, he barely saw Hunk lift up Pidge by the leg and swing her towards the wall, she yelped as her back slammed against the wall and slid like a puppet with cut strings.

Lance had never seen Hunk do anything so violent, especially to Pidge.  
Lance was brought back to his fight as a sword caressed his cheek, he cried out knowing he needs to make some serious distance and now.  
Keith looked ready to kill, Lance skid backwards and was finally able to aim in time to shoot a plasma at his foot, Keith grunted but that didn’t stop him as he kept moving forward.

All of a sudden something wrapped around his leg, Lance looked down and almost screamed when he saw Pidges dark face covered in blood dripping from a head wound and she was panting like an undead zombie.  
She looked very horrific, it made Lance distracted, Pidge spun and swiped Lance’s legs out from beneath him. He yelped and fell backwards beyond terrified, he aimed at Pidge in a last ditch effort, he missed.  
He crawled back as he saw Pidge and Keith advance towards him, but where was Hunk?  
He saw behind them, Hunk was lying face down- oh god did she kill him?

Lance flinched waited for a strike.  
“Enough!” He heard Corans voice and gave a sigh of relief.  
Coran crossed his arms his lip pulling into a sneer “That did not last long, Only Pidge and Keith were able to defeat their opponents.”  
Lance face fell, that was bullshit, Pidge helped Keith plain and simple.  
Shiro glanced at Coran “They held their own, except Hunk.” Lance glanced back and felt back, the dude wasn’t moving…  
Pidge was insane.  
“Heh, it seems we have three candidates for the Black Lion. Next strategy!” Hunk groaned and Lance gave a sigh of relief, Hunk was alive.  
“W-what about me?” He groaned looking up and oh god his face was bleeding.  
Coran glared down at him “You failed the team, Hunk. You are dismissed.” Hunk got up ungracefully, and walked sluggishly towards the door “Aw, man…”  
Lance murmured to Keith “Is he going to be okay? I mean, shouldn’t he go to the med bay or something?”  
Keith gave him an odd look “Why should you care?”  
Quiznack.  
“Oh uh, no reason. We don’t want to replace the yellow Paladin too.” That seemed to appease Keith, “Fair enough.”

“Don’t think you should slack off now Paladins. We have a few more tests to go through!”   
Lance as well as the others groaned out loud.  
No wonder Shiro wanted to leave this place.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N god how do writers do it? I mean every other fanfic writer makes it so easy to write chemestry but it's so hard, I feel like I'm still not close to conveying it just adsfsdax just kill me.

Shiro was now stationed in one of the control rooms panel, above the training room. He spoke through the speaker to the Paladins waiting in the deck below.  
“Now, we move onto your battle strategies, whoever succeeds in this exercise could be a possible candidate in the position for Black paladin.”  
Suddenly white squares appeared onto the floor and the others took a step back, mostly confused.  
“Um, Shiro? What is this?” Pidge asked looking just as wary as the rest of them.   
“We are playing Chess, there is no better way to test the mind.”   
Lance dropped his bayard “I’m out, Pidge is won, Keith. No point in bothering.”   
“Lance!” Shiro called out “You need to at least try it, Pidge goes first.”

Lance watched as more hologram pieces appeared and Pidge stood with her hand to her mouth.  
Lance watched and felt his hopes diminish as Pidge kept taking, piece after piece. She almost had the game in checkmate after three moves.  
Lance did not know much about Chess except for blocking the queen with the pawns and rook and protecting them.   
He was brought back to the match by Pidge’s outcry “Shiro! What the Quizneck!?”  
He looked up and blinked the whole Chess set was different “Um, Wasn’t Pidge winning?” He asked.  
But Shiro spoke overhead giving them the answer “The Battle field is always going to change, you’re going to be caught of guard and the enemy will have some tricks up their sleeve, You have to see those ahead of the time.”   
Pidge growled and started again, she managed to save herself but before she could checkmate the whole set changed again.  
“Screw this!” She screamed and turned away, stomping out of the training room.

“How do you think I feel?” Shiro sounded way too smug and Lance held back a smile.  
Keith took a step forward “Let’s get this over with.”  
He looked really calm…  
And for good reason, Keith did not play the game like Pidge did, he was just winging it. And it seemed to be working.  
The game shifted around Keith’s piece weren’t all over the planet like Pidge’s was, if anything his chaotic impulsive nature seemed to be helping him.  
Lance watched stunned as Keith won. Managing to block the Queen with a rook and a Knight and a pawn left, it was ridiculous.  
“Beat that, Blue.” Keith sneered and Lance watched him warily as he moved away, he did not know why but this Keith was really giving him the creeps in these universe.

Taking a breath he took a step forward and the game reset, anew.

Lance was never good at chess, he forgot the rules every single time and because of this he was hesitant with his moves, but he still protected the Queen with the Rook and Pawns.  
He grimaced the chess reseted and expected his whole board to be a mess.  
“What the…?”  
Even Keith looked confused, Lances Queen was still safe. Lance blinked but kept pushing forward and after a while after each reset, he noticed a pattern, he was able to see the moves on where they would ahead of time and was able to attack them and take pieces away, he managed to beat the game with half his pieces still intact.  
“Game set!” Coran yelled over top, Lance flinched forgetting where he was, he was so engrossed in the game it took a while to remember why Coran and Shiro were coming towards them.  
Lance gulped he took longer than Keith, was he disqualified?  
Shiro didn’t look happy, or angry he was just...expressionless. While Keith looked way too smug, Lance scowled at him.  
Shiro crossed his arms “Pidge failed the game, her lack of patience and thinking too long caused her and her battalion to die.” His eyes flickered to Keith “Although Keith beat the game in record time,” The boy puffed up his chest “He sacrificed most of his battalion to do it.” realising this was a bad thing, Keith deflated.   
“And Lance.” The boy tensed waiting for the criticism “While Lance only lost two of his pieces.” Lance beamed and Keith looked ready to punch him.

Shiro placed his hands on his hip, looking just as amused as Lance felt “Which means, both of you have one more test.”  
Now Lance’s face fell, “Are you serious right now?” He gestured wildly almost hitting Keith in the face.  
Coran was playing with his moustache. “The only thing both of you need is teamwork, which from what we have seen earlier, I highly doubt both of you know anything about teamwork.”  
“Why should we bother with teamwork if we’re all so replaceable?” Keith growled and even Lance had to admit, keith wasn’t totally wrong.  
“Oh, dear boy- teamwork is another term for being a leader, to make your subordinates around you do as you say with no doubt, like Shiro. All of you followed him blindly even if it meant life or death. But saying teamwork is much more easier.”   
Lance gulped, he see’s why nobody likes Coran here.

Shiro glanced back and forth then patted Lance’s back “Both of you take a break, be back in a hour.”  
“What about our-”  
“We won’t be long.” Lance just worried what would happen if they ticked of Allura in this world.  
Both paladins began to walk out, Lance glanced back to see Shiro talking to Coran.  
When Lance faced forward almost out the hallway, something grabbed his arm and slammed him against the wall.  
“Keith!” He gasped when he saw he threw him, Keith was pressed into him and held him up by the collar of his armour “What the hell!?”  
“The better back of Mclain.” Keith hissed his lilac eyes furrowed “Only one of us can be the Black Paladin.” Lance blinked, whoa Keith really wanted it in this universe, huh?  
“Since when were you competitive?” lance deduced, Keith sneered pulling back “When were you? You never hang out with Shiro, or try this hard to beat me are you trying to follow Alfors footsteps?” Lance tried to pry of Keiths hands but the red paladin only tightened his hold.  
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”   
“Don’t be stupid,” Keith slammed him back into the wall “You think if you kill Shiro you’ll take his place? I know Allura thinks we’re all replaceable but he is not, I don’t care what she says!”   
Lance’s watched stunned, he’s never seen Keith this emotional before.  
“Keith, Chill, I’m not going to hurt him-”  
“Don’t lie, I know you wanted to be the Black Paladin more than any of us, but if you hurt Shiro, I am going to fucking kill you.”  
Lance forgot how to breath “K-Keith you’re wrong, I don’t want to- I would never do that, Shiro he’s...he’s too important.” Lance gushed out, Shiro was...who was he to Lance? A father figure, no an older brother? A friend or an ally...or…  
Keiths eyes flickered in suspicion, while Lance felt his mood take a nosedive to Depression Avenue, next stop Anxiety Town.  
Lance looked up and squared his shoulders “Shiro is too important to me.”

Keith sneered “Bullshit, I’ve never seen you on him as much like a parasite until recently, you said yourself you thought being the Head of Voltron was pointless, why change your mind now?”

Lance felt that he was sweating, was he? He pretty sure he was. He completely screwed up, he thought he and Lance were not so different, but their ideals were.  
“Keith I can’t convince you but I promise-”  
“You’d leave him alone?”   
Lance grimaced “I can’t do that,” Keith growled enraged and shoved him away, Lance stumbled back barely holding himself upright from falling into the wall.

Keith sneered and began to walk down the hall, Lance panted and held himself up to the wall, that was stressful. He heard walking footsteps and tensed.  
“Lance?” He relaxed when he realised it was Shiro, “Are you okay?” He placed a hand on his shoulder and Lance found himself leaning into it.  
“M’fine, Seriously.” Pulling back he stood up straighter, “Keith really believes I’m going to straight up shank you.” He joked, but Shiro wasn’t laughing.  
“What?” He sounded panicked, oh god, cannot have a panicked Shiro “What did he say?” Lance looked everywhere but Shiro “Um, I don’t know he thinks I’m following in Alfors footsteps, but I really think he might kill me in my sleep.” Lance glanced back the way Keith left.

“Lance, I don’t think you should be alone-” Lance shook his head “Nonsense, Allura needs me and you need to uh, interrogate Slav which I have to say,” Lance took a few steps back snapping finger guns Shiro’s way. “So Glad I’m not you right now!”   
“Lance wait!” Shiro could only stand there as Lance left, and hoped to god Allura doesn’t start screaming through the castle about an intruder.

 

The Separate missions were...well, awkward. Usually Lance flirted with Allura just to break the ice, but this version he had no idea on how he should act, he already screwed up before with Keith he did not want to tick of Allura.  
She sighed and Lance stood to attention “You're bored aren’t you?” Lance shook his head “Bored? What me? No, I’m not bored with...whatever we’re doing.” Allura rolled her eyes.  
“Leave if your bored-” Lance was already gone, she blinked looking around “Lance?”

He managed to get to his room, he knew everyone else was done, Hunk and Pidge went to bed and Lance wondered what he could do, wait for Shiro?  
He went to Shiro’s room and waited outside the door awkwardly. He glanced away then took a breath and stepped inside, he’ll just have to wait for him, Shiro would understand. Hopefully.

Lance drifted to sleep, for a moment all was peaceful, he dreamt of voices, some asking if he was okay, Lance hummed in his sleep thankful that at least someone out there cared for him. And then suddenly he woke up. The room was dark and he found himself rolling over his brows furrowing, to wonder why he woke up in the first place.  
Until he heard a noise, eyes wide and ears straining to hear what it was, he heard it again on his right.  
He leaned over the bed and saw that Shiro was lying on the floor, why the heck was he on the floor.  
And he was thrashing around and it wasn’t until he started screaming that Lance gasped and almost fell out of the bed “Shiro- Shiro!”   
Shiro’s arm glowed and Lance managed to leap back in time, “Shiro wake up!” Lance made the mistake of grabbing his arm and Shiro gasped eyes snapping open and unseeing, he lunged forward Lance grunted when his back slammed into the ground and then choked when he felt Shiro’s hand wrap around his throat.  
“S-Shiro!” Lance gasped out thrashing from beneath the wall of a body “It’s me- Lance!” He could see his vision going blotchy.  
“It’s okay.” He tried to pry Shiro's hands of but his movements became sluggish, was he going to die?  
It was surreal, he did not notice Shiro blink “Lance- Oh god,”   
Shiro moved so fast Lance had whiplash, he rolled over and began coughing his throat burned and he was pretty sure he was crying.  
“Lance I’m so sorry-” The Blue Paladin waited absentmindedly “One second,” He said his voice low and rough as he cleared his throat “Guh, are you okay?” He asked at last.  
Shiro blinked “I, you- You ask as if I’m Okay!? I nearly killed you!”  
“But you didn’t.” Lance said and Shiro groaned placing his hands over his face, his voice sounding strange. “It shouldn’t have happened,”   
“But it’s not your fault.” Lance scooted forward, Shiro shoulders hitched and Lance leaned back “um,” He glanced around and wondered how he could move this from the floor to the bed.  
“Shiro,” he spoke softly “I nderstand, really I do. I get panic attacks all the time,” Now Shiro was looking at him.  
“You…?”  
Lance nodded and touched Shiro’s hand, thankfully he didn’t flinch and let Lance help him up to the bed, as Shiro sat lance turned to the blankets and pillows to the floor and began to gather them up.  
“Can I help?” Shiro asked at last when he realised what Lance was doing, the boy turned and gave Shiro a look.  
“No you stay there.”

As he got the blankets he threw it over Shiro then took the pillows and began to place them, he maneuvered Shiro back onto the pillows and sat beside him, “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked leaned against Shiro’s arm, Lance never realised how cold he was, he snuggled into Shiro’s arm and the other thankfully said nothing about it.  
“No.”   
Lance nodded “That’s okay,” Pulling the blanket over the two, Lance made himself comfortable “Pillow forts make everything better.” He said out loud when Shiro kept looking at him oddly.  
Shiro gave an amused huff, but he wasn’t complaining.  
Lance felt himself relax, Shiro’s breathing turning steady was making him sleepy, until Lance raised a hand to his neck he felt Shiro inhale sharply. Knowing what Shiro was going to say Lance blurted out “You know those UFO sightings on Earth?” Shiro blinked wondering why Lance suddenly thought of that.  
“It turns out they weren’t fake, the alien guy was basically stealing stuff to sell back at the mall back here.”   
Shiro surprised let out a small chuckle “Really?”  
Lance looked up, proud of himself that Shiro looked more relaxed, “Yeah,” He continued “You just missed him, he had the whole stereotypical Paul the Alien look but with Clothes on.” Lance said wistfully, he felt Shiro wrap and arm around his shoulder, Lance physically melted into the embrace.  
“I can’t believe I missed it,” Shiro said Lance nodded “You had to bond with Black, it was worth it, but ah, you should have seen Hunk, he was abducted by a Galra at a restaurant all because he thought the food samples were free.”  
“That sounds like Hunk.” Shiro agreed Lance kept talking and rambling away, and Shiro listened closing his eyes and feeling himself lull to sleep by the Blue Paladins voice.  
“Is, Is this working?” Lance asked at last, making Shiro open his eyes “Yeah, it is.” Lance was smiling at him and Shiro had never felt so safe before, blinking he looked away “Did you and Pidge really take money from a fountain.” Lance grimaced “Pretend you didn’t hear that-”  
“Oh I want to know.” Shiro cut in leaving no room for arguments, “I want to know everything,” Lance was silent.  
“I’m not mad, I really want to know.” Lance raised an eyebrow, and Shiro smiled at the expression, Lance pouted “Alright, so Pidge found this game, and we realised Coran didn’t give us any money you know? So how else would we buy it…?”  
He continued on until both of them fell asleep. 

That was how Lance woke up the next morning, drool rolling down his chin and clinging to Shiro like an octopus. Feeling mortified Lance leaned back and wiped the drool of his chin, he then saw that Shiro was holding his hand, and his breathing were so soft almost non-existent, he looked so soft. Lance frowned he’d never seen Shiro look this vulnerable before, and the sudden thought that was almost crippling, made him think that Shiro was not so different than him, he was just a kid, trying to figure everything out just from being a few years older he had to be more mature.  
Lance knew he wouldn’t be able to bear it.   
Brushing white hair out of Shiro’s face he sighed “You're so much stronger than anyone gives you credit for,” Pulling his hand back Lance glanced down at his lap “We’d be lost without you Shiro, we already are…” Feeling foolish Lance stood up and walked towards the Bathroom, he was here still. And he knew he should do something about it, he had to be strong.  
Just like Shiro.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N Sorry for no update yesterday, it’s been really hot and I’m dying here, too hot- send wateraid!

Lance was beginning to fear for his life, Keith was watching him like a hawk and if Lance gravitated towards Shiro in any way, Keiths hand hovered towards his knife.  
Today was not a good day for Lance, and that chess game had turned his head to mush.

He journeyed to th kitchen and saw Shiro was already in there, taking a breath he sided next to the man and grabbed his own bowl.  
“Hey Shiro?”  
“Hmm?” Shiro mumbled with a spoon in his mouth his hand absentmindedly looking for a bowl, Lance placed his bowl down 

“Would you mind If I sleep in your room again, tonight?” He asked.  
Shiro as expectant did not think the request was odd, he merely smiled “I wouldn’t mind, it’s not trouble.”  
Lance relaxed then tensed up when he heard Keith coming inside the kitchen and grabbed his own bowl, he scowled, it was just Keith no need to get so stressed out-  
“Lance!” Allura called over the intercoms that the boy flinched almost spilling his food goo, oh his poor heart.  
How in the hell can Shiro stand this?   
“Report to the dungeon!” Lance glanced at Shiro looking lost, Shiro stood up “I’ll take you.”   
Keith’s eyes flashed “Maybe I should-” Shiro cut him off with a pat to his arm, but his face looked dark, almost threatening.  
“I can handle it.” Keith glanced down looking like he was scowled, Lance though, looked terrified at the both of them.

Once they left the kitchen and walked down the hall, Shiro spoke “Lance, you can’t fight with keith here.” Lance’s face scrunched up.  
“Why do you assume it’s me? He attacked me first!” He waved his hands in the air, Shiro looked alarmed “Attacked!?” He almost yelled that Lance held his hands up “No, I mean threatened, he thinks I’m trying to take over as the Black Paladin.”  
Shiro looked ahead “Well, I can see why he thinks it’s strange, the Blue Paladin here keeps stating that he thinks it’s a waste of time.”  
Lance stared at him and Shiro just noticing turned and saw Lance staring holes into him.  
“What?”

“You tell me this now.” His eyes narrowed looking very squinty “No wonder Keith flipped his shit.” Lance crossed his arms and began to walk faster, even though he had no clue on where he was going.  
Shiro placed his hand on Lance’s arm “I didn’t mean to-”  
“It’s too late now.” Lance huffed then stopped walking “Is there anything else I should know about?” He placed his hands on his hips, Shiro mouth twitched, not knowing what to say “Besides the rivalry with Keith being non existent? Nothing else is different.”   
Lance frowned “What? I am no different than this Lance…?”

“Surprisingly no? I was wary of him because he figured out who I was, but he hasn’t said anything. No one acts different and neither does he.”

Lance was the same regardless of which universe? That was...a scary thought.  
“Well uh, anyway isn’t Allura waiting for us?”  
Lance walked forward and Shiro patted his shoulder, Lance turned confused and saw Shiro pointing the other way “It’s that way.”  
“Oh.”

Allura turned around when the door opened to allow them inside, “It’s about damn time.” She scowled then pushed a tablet into Lance’s hands.  
“Fix this?”  
Lance glanced down “Um, I’m not a mechanic like the others, I can’t fix tablets.” Allura’s eyes ticked.  
“Be serious for one moment in your miserable life.” first of, owch.  
“You were the one who thought of this synthesis idea, we have come across a dilemma.”   
Lance saw Pidge was here beside Allura, and the grin she was wearing is shark like.  
“What’s the problem?” He asked because this mathematical formula was giving him a headache, “Because these are hieroglifs.” 

Pidge rolled her eyes “Come ere, Genius.” Lance followed and saw Pidge grab her laptop, and open it up, Lance leaned over, until he glanced up he almost jumped out his skin.  
Slav was tied in a straightjacket that had weird looking patches- oh god was that blood, and his breathing was rasping and he was blindfolded.  
“The Crystals and Quintessence can mix into an elixir- but they could only power up the device for so long, there’s gaps in the cells, so we could add another component.”  
“Have you tried adding the Scaultrite from the weblum?”   
Pidge raised an eyebrow and Lance shrugged “What? I just thought what would happen if we toss everything into a mix like the powerpuff girls.” Pidge shook her head “no, Lance. Some things can’t be mixed because they are only made and work for speicific functions.”  
Lance crossed his arms and pouted “Worth a try.”  
“You did try honey.” Pidge admitted “But I don’t know how to do this.”   
“It’s a freakin time machine,” Lance said “Of course you’re going to have some hiccups, just make a bigger crystal.”  
“Lance the Bulmera can’t give a crystal that big-”   
“Then I don’t know!” Lance yelled, bringing his hands forward “Your the whiz kid!”  
“This was your dumb idea!” Pidge yelled and - was that a souldering iron? She wasn’t going to use that on him, was she?

Lance groaned and moved away “Well excuse me for having an idea!” He then turned and pointed “And if it was that stupid, why did you even consider-”  
“Lance…?” A sad croaky voice called out, that Lance’s own voice dried up.  
He turned and saw Slav wheeze then his lips twitch “Lance...will be the Black Paladin in this universe.”  
Lance’s eyes widened, what?

“Pidge! Gag him!” Allura snapped moving forward herself to assist, but Lance’s eyes were locked onto the alien tied up, who was still speaking.  
“Remember what I said about different realities?” Pidge managed to knock him out while Allura tied a piece of cloth around his mouth.

Lance wasn’t aware that Shiro was behind him, Shiro placed his hands on his shoulders “Lance?”  
The boy flinched “Wha- oh sorry, I was just caught of guard.” He was still trembling.  
He leaned into Shiro then covered his face, quiznack he was losing it.  
“Lance?” he sounded worried and saw the boy hug him, Lance was aware Shiro had no idea on what to do with him.  
Lance hadn’t a clue either “Shiro-” He didn’t even recognise his own voice “Slav said- shit he said the only realities I’m the Black paladin, is that I die in them.”  
He felt Shiro flinch, then his hold tightened around Lance.  
“Did he mean the Blue Paladin here- or me?” Lance couldn’t breathe, and felt the only thing grounding him was of Shiro wrapping his arms around him.

“What’s with him?” Allura asked and Lance shied away from the voice, luckily she didn’t see him. He heard Shiro glance up and speak to her “Slav, he’s been messing with him.” He heard Allura tsk.  
“I told him not to talk to Lance, it would’ve driven anyone insane. Get Lance out of here, he was useless anyway.”  
Lance felt himself being led and followed Shiro out into the hallway “I’m worried I can’t ever leave you alone.” Shiro admitted.  
Lance huffed out a laugh “That’s what everybody says.”

“Shiro I’m fine now,” Lance patted Shiros shoulder and moved away, until the two paused to see Keith at the end of the corridor staring at them.  
This was worse than when the castle was possessed, Lance glanced Shiro’s way and saw he was just as unnerved as Lance felt.  
“You guys,” Keith started suspiciously “Have been hanging out a lot more recently.” Shiro frowned “Keith-”  
Lance stepped forward and glanced behind him “I can handle this.”  
Shiro looked worried, when Lance approached Keith.

The boy scoffed “Think you’re so tough now that Shiro’s here?” Lance snickered “What are you jealous, Keith?” Lance gave a cheshire like grin “Scared Shiro’s not hanging out with- oh shit!” He leaned backwards when Keith lunged.

Lance had no idea that Keith would react like this, he moved out the way and honestly felt confused during the scuffle, until Keith grabbed his shirt- and it ripped, His eyes widened but Keith kept coming his hand clawing at his shoulder, Lance slammed into the wall and the sudden panic that Keith was going to kill him- Keith was seriously going to kill him.  
“Lance!” Shiro cried out about to move, but Lance barely heard him.  
He saw red.

...All he remembered was someone pulling him away while screaming, “Lance, Stop it- You’re going to kill him!”  
He felt sluggish and his chest was heaving and he saw the mess he made, the air got caught in his throat.  
Keith was bloody on the floor barely breathing steady himself, Lance trembled and ripped himself away from Shiro’s grip and he ran towards his room.  
“Lance! Stop-”

Shiros voice faded and Lance kept running, he got to his room and the door shut behind him.  
Lance fell to his bed and wrapped the blankets around him, he wanted to go home- How could Shiro stand it?

He heard his door open and stopped breathing, he was still shaking and when he felt something touch his shoulder and jumped “Don’t touch me, Shiro!” He knew it was Shiro, he was the only one who would check up on him in this world.  
Lance felt his lips pull into an ugly scowl, “Go away.”  
“No.” Shiro began to rub at his back “I admit I was surprised, but I don’t blame you for what happened, you were acting fine for so long I was worried....”  
Lance sat up the blanket pooling around him “Maybe...The Lance here is gone because we aren’t that different.” Lance took a shuddering breath “I’m just as foul as the rest of them.” 

Shiro gave him a hard look “Lance, you are nothing like the rest of them,”  
“You don’t understand-”  
“No. I do understand.” Shiro said making Lance face him and placed his hands on his shoulders, “I know better than anyone, what the galra did to me, through half the times I stopped believing I was human, that I was one of them.”   
They were so close Lance could feel Shiro’s breath lightly ghosting his skin, Shiro was still talking, he looked intense “I know you would never intentionally hurt someone, Keith attacked you first and I know you wouldn’t hurt Keith back home…”  
Lance inhaled sharply, but he did. He hurt Keith more than physical hits can do, Lance’s eyes pricked and Shiro leaned back a little stunned, “I have to talk to Allura.” He said outloud, but wrapped Lance up in the blanket.  
“I’ll be right back.” Shiro walked towards the door then suddenly turned around and pointed “Don’t leave this room.”  
Lance nodded and heard the door slid shut behind Shiro.  
Lance’s eyes lowered to his hands, his bloodied and crusted fingers…

 

A while later, most of the Anti Voltron team avoided him, even Keith was wary for crying out loud, what would that say when even the evil guys were afraid of you?  
It made Lance feel crummy and his stomach ached, Allura though, looked proud “It’s about time you’re shaping up.” Lance scowled, usually her words were encouraging but now everything she said was grinding on his nerves.  
While Keith and Pidge were talking they couldn’t hear what She was saying “I hope it stays that way, I’ve never liked Keith that much half galra...It would be best not to have him as the head, hmm?” Lance could only numbly nod.  
How did Shiro handle this?

He tried to find Shiro earlier to apologise to how he was acting, but Shiro would only smile and say it was okay.  
It wasn’t okay.

“Paladins, time for debriefing.” The others began to gravitate towards her, Pidge on his left and Shiro on his right.

Suddenly he felt Shiro hold his hand, Lance glanced down surprised and saw Shiro’s face, his grip was lax waiting for Lance to move away.  
Lance tightened his grip then looked at Allura, feeling himself relax for the first time ever being here.  
“There is a galra hovering around a Belithium Whale.” Lance frowned “Belith- what?”  
“I’ll tell you later.” Shiro hummed amused, while Allura continued on unaware of Shiro and Lance not paying attention.  
“...Here is footage of one of the rouge Galra.” Lance glanced up and saw a visual of an alien who’s skin tone reminded him of a sour grape, the armour and the white hair- it couldn’t be.  
Lotor!?

Something had to ruin it, if there's one constant, in all the effin universes it was Lotor.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N Okay sorry that I repeat myself in some fics, the reason why I’m kinda fast with updates is because I havn’t planned anything out- it’s why I’m all over the place. Once the whole Arc is done I promise I will grammer check and update the damn thing.  
> Also Doppleganger is here YAY, Lance is going to refer to him as Kuro in his head, so not to cause you guys or himself some confusion.

They chased Lotor all the way through the planet, and Lance was sick of it. Shiro and Lance manage to catch up with Lotor and the others were just behind them. As Lotor saw he was cornered like a rat, he turned with a snarl and Lance grimaced.  
Lotor looked like hell, and that was Keiths handy work.

“Hand over your empire peacefully Galra scum.” Lance heard Allura and grimaced, damn do not get on her bad side.  
Lotor scowled “Never-” Lotor stopped as his eyes landed on Lance, it made him feel uncomfortable for entirely different reasons.  
“Queen Allura,” Lotor’s voice dripped with false politeness, Lance noticed how Allura visibly bristled.  
“I ask of only one thing.” His smile looked way too warm for Lance’s comfort “May I marry that sweet Altean there.”   
Allura glanced at Coran, “Um?” Even Coran looked alarmed, Lotor looked enraged at this misunderstanding.  
“Not him-” He stomped his foot that amused Lance, if a little, until Lotor pointed “The Beauty in the blue armour.”   
Lance wanted a wormhole to open up and take him away from this place.

“Lance?” Allura asked, looking way too amused for what this conversation called for, Lance scowled beyond offended, Allura kept talking “You are mistaken, he is not Altean. But Human.” She said it as if it were a bad thing.  
Lotor didn’t seem to mind “Nobody’s perfect, if he became mine, I would gladly offer my empire.”  
Mother. Quiznaker,

Allura raised an eyebrow and Lance glanced her way then took a step back realising she was looking at him expectantly.  
“What? Hell no.”   
Pidge grinned mischievously “You could pretend,”   
“Quiznack no.” Lance did not even care about his and Shiro’s cover, if Allura ordered it he was going to Shoot her in the face, then Lotor afterwards.  
Pidge nudged his arm “Come on, how bad could it be?”   
“No.” Shiro voice boomed like a sonic wave and everyone, even Lotor, flinched. Shiro looked pissed.  
Lance was just thankful Shiro was on his side.

 

Shiro looked kinda scary talking and he sounded so angry, that Lance missed it he turned back in and realised Shiro was chewing Lotor out.  
“You dare think you are worthy enough to lay a finger on a member of Voltron?”  
Shiro’s eyes looked steely “You insect, you have no right to look at the Blue Paladin neither mind ask such a ridiculous request.”  
Lance felt touched, in a worried sort of way, Shiro sure was really laying it on thick. 

Allura chuckled “See half breed? Everyone here is repulsed by you.”   
Lotor scowled and looked animalistic “I will not take this insolence, I will strike you down Allura.”  
“You free to try, Scum.”  
They apprehended Lotor and managed to tie him up in the dungeon, Allura looked proud of her team, that much was obvious to Lance.  
“Well done, Voltron. Now the Galra empire is in our grasp, there is no stopping us.”  
“Except for those Altean traitors.” Coran hissed like a snake, Lance turned surprised not by Corans admission, but the fact too.  
Altean survivors?  
Allura’s lip curled “Yes, Hagger and her pose to deal with. All those Alteans hiding like worms, there are a disgrace. Alas, it is time to move forward.”

As the others disbanded as Allura and Coran decided to take interrogating into their own hands. Lance and Shiro decided to move into one of the un used rooms of the castle.   
“Shiro, I need to talk to Slav.” Lance said once they were alone, “I really need to figure out this time machine’s weakness.”  
Shiro crossed his arms his eyes brows furrowed “I not sure what we can do Lance, what we do here might affect home.”   
Lance nodded “I get that, but if we keep tip toeing nothing is going to get done.”  
Shiro’s voice sounded grave “We should be cautious,” He held no room for argument while Lance crossed his arms and got in Shiro’s face.  
“We should just get it over with, the quicker it’s done, the better.” 

Instead of fighting back, Shiro blinked then smiled “You sound just like Keith.”  
That made Lance take a step back “Did you seriously just tell a joke?” Shiro shook his head.  
“No.”   
“You totally grinned,” Lance leaned closer into his space, this time non threatening “You’re so easy to read now, you told a joke!” Lance sounded delighted and Shiro couldn’t help but look amused, he was easy to read huh?

“Alright.” He admitted “Let’s go get Slav.” Lance beamed and began to walk towards the door “You coming?” He asked when he noticed Shiro lagging behind.  
“Oh, yeah, Yeah I’m coming.” 

As soon as they neared Slav’s dunegon, Lance felt the familiar pressure of Shiro’s hand on his shoulder and he whispered in Lance’s ear.  
“We’re being followed.” Lance glanced back and saw Keith, he faced forward again before Keith could notice.  
Shiro cursed “I knew he was a theroist nut, but this is getting out of hand.” Lance almost stopped walking.  
“Theorist?”  
Shiro grinned down at him “When he was a kid he believed in big foot.”  
Lance almost stopped breathing “No way.” That was so much blackmail material.  
But at the matter at hand, he was worried about this universe's Keith “I don’t think he’s going to leave us alone…” Lance bit his lip.  
For once, Lance had nothing, no clue on how Keith could finally leave them alone, although Lance did have to think how deep their bond is that even in a universe where back stabbing and hurting each other was normal. Keith still had a close relationship with Shiro.

It was sweet, in a sad sort of way.

“Lance,” Shiro sounded, wary as his steps fell into sync with Lance’s as he asked “Can I improvise?” Lance blinked almost stumbling but kept his pace “Um, oddly strange request, but sure if you think so?”   
Shiro glanced down at him “Keith is never one to let anything go, you’ve seen how he was with the Blue Lion until you picked it up.”  
Lance nodded “With clarity.”  
“The only way to explain why we’ve been so close, sharing bedrooms and staying by each other’s side was...if we kissed.”  
“What?”   
Shiro looked alarmed “Was that too much?” While Lance could only swallow, this was kissing, it wasn’t a hu or holding hands- actual kissing.  
Shiro continued on, almost rambling “I know it’s too much to ask, but since Lance did it all the time I thought-”  
Now his brain was 0.8 seconds from combusting.  
“What?” He almost screeched, the lance here did what now!?   
“He actually kis- kissed you? Like kiss-kiss you on the mouth?” Shiro flushed and looked ahead his lips pulling into a scowl “Never on the lips.”

Lance looked ahead, they were almost at Slav’s dungeon- And Keith’s footsteps were getting heavier almost as if he was about to do something.  
“Shiro, off the record. It’s not real,” Lance glanced up “Right?” Shiro glanced down at him, his face betraying nothing, was this just an act to Shiro? To overcome an obsticle?  
To tell you the truth it made Lance a little sad.  
“Yeah...It’s not real.” Shiro admitted. Lance took a breath his footsteps faltering “Okay, so how do you wanna…?”  
Shiro suddenly grabbed his arm and easily maneuvered Lance and held him against the wall, the whole slamming something into the wall sounded sexy and cute, in theory anyway.  
So Lance was beyond happy that Shiro did not do that, Shiro lifted him so effortlessly as if he were a pair of grapes. Lance hardly felt a thing.  
Although Shiro kissing him could have been a huge part of it.

For a moment Lance mind became blank, and no to popular belief it does not do that often, most of his senses zeroed in on Shiro’s lips.  
Shiros pale plump biteable lips- wait he was supposed to be kissing back right?  
He felt mortified when he moaned into the kiss, realising he already brought his hand up and was cupping Shiro’s cheek.  
Lance felt calm, like he was back with blue, and Shiro’s breath tickling his face made Lance pull back for a moment, and with no regard to himself and everyone around him.  
Lance kissed Shiro back, even Shiro sounded surprised, but he didn’t pull away.

Until they both needed to breath they reluctantly leaned back, Lance opening his eyes, and was surprised that Shiro looked flustered and a little vindictive, Lance had no idea what he looked like, but unlike Shiro, he bet he looked unappealing.

Lance glanced Keiths way, and saw him walking backwards then turn around, the only way to describe his expression was just, nope.  
Lance face pulled into an ugly smirk, he couldn’t help it. It felt like the best prank ever to his rival. Nothing could ever top this.  
“Keiths gone.” Shiro said, snapping him back to reality, Lance glanced back to him “So he is.” A beat, “You can put me down now.”  
Shiro looked flustered “Right- Sorry.” Lance was settled down, but still felt the warm butterflies in his stomach, he felt like he was about to go on a roller coaster ride.

“Okay, Slav. Yeah dungeon, What we were doing.” Lance felt weird, was he acting weird? He was over exaggerating his movements.  
Shiro thankfully only chuckled, rather have the guy amused than freaked out “Really articulate.” Shiro snickered, Lance pouted and continued walking faster.  
“Y’know, even if it wasn’t real, I still wish we could do that at home. So I could see Keith's face reaction.”  
Shiro almost walked into a wall.

They finally arrived at the door and Lance took a breath “Alright, interrogate Slav, get information on the device,” He glanced at Shiro, who seemed closer all of a sudden, Lance almost stuttered “Warn everyone of Lotor’s plan, destroy his secret weapon make Slav return you home bada bing bada boom, we’re all home glory!”  
Shiro huffed out a breath “I doubt it’ll be that easy.”  
“Be positive.” Lance punched Shiro’s shoulder then walked in, then began freaking out on why he punched Shiro in the shoulder!? What is wrong with him?

Slav jostled when they neared and Lance almost gagged, Slav looked horrible, he admit to any deity out there, that he’ll treat Slav much better when he gets back to the little dude.  
“Hello Slav,”  
“Blue Paladin,” He wheezed back “From the other world.” Lance frowned, he had to admit it was pretty nifty how each Slav knew from all these realities.  
“Um, it’s cool that you know who I am but I was wondering if we could use your help?” He was expecting alot, Slav was silent then smiled “Of course, a last death wish I assume.”  
Shiro’s eyes narrowed “Death wish?”  
Slav chuckled, and Lance realised how dark it sounded “He knows, in all realities he was the Black Paladin he dies. It’s as simple as that. Continue with the way you are in this world it will become a reality...although it depends on which Lance is...present.”  
Lance felt shivers roll down his spine, he cleared his throat “Interesting, I was hoping since the whole time travel idea came from you- we were wondering if you could be able to stop it?”  
Slav was breathing heavily, Lance saw Shiro walk away then appear back with a glass of ice and began feeding Slav some.  
“Thank you Paladin, yes there is a way to stop it. Don’t you recall Belithium Crystals.”  
“There’s that word again.”  
“Belithium, is just like Weblum Whales that create Scaultries, but the components they create is easily synthesized to disrupt other technology a form of a technical virus. If you find such a thing and able to use it, then all of your enemies technology will be broken- temporarily of course, until Voltron is able to apprehend them.”  
“How long are we talking here?”  
“3 deboshes.” Lance groaned “Just use time like humans- I know you understand it!” Slav frowned “3 hours, happy?”  
“Ecstatic.”   
Lance beamed at Shiro “We’ve got all the info we need, Slav will bring you back in the next two days, and we’ll defeat Lotor, up top!” Lance held out his hand for a high five, Shiro deciding to amuse him raised his own, Lance went for a high five.  
He missed.  
“Whoa-” Lance legs wobbled and Shiro managed to grab him, before he collapsed “Lance! What-” Lance shook his head “Sorry, I just felt dizzy...whoa.” His eyes blackened then came back into focus.  
Lance eyes squinted then widened in horror, his breath became quick and shallow, Shiro held him tighter, worried for why Lance seemed so stressed out.  
“Shiro, I think I’m going,” He felt panicked, oh god “Shiro-” He looked up into Shiro’s own panicked eyes and looked desperate “I can’t go back now- I don’t know how Allura’s going to use the thing, it could affect us and you I can’t-”   
Shiro hands suddenly moved from his shoulders to his face and held him steady “Lance, listen to me. It’s going to be okay.”  
“No Shiro it’s- there’s not enough time.”  
“Lance.”   
The way Shiro spoke his name made him look at Shiro in the eyes, they were so steady and focused it grounded him a little.  
“You’re our wayfinder, I know you’ll bring us back home, together.” Shiro looked so hopeful, that Lance felt hopeless.  
“I’ll, I’ll try.”  
“That’s my boy.” Shiro leaned closer and Lance inhaled, and felt Shiro’s lips kiss his forehead.  
“I’ll keep you safe until you wake up.” Lance closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.

Then woke up with a gasp, he heard Coran almost topple out of his chair “Lance my boy!” Lance turned with a start and saw that the Coran, was his Coran. His eyes were so bright and full of life there was no mistaken him.  
Lance almost cried, he never realised how much he missed him.  
Coran leaned forward “You're awake!” He sounded so happy, that Lance began to worry. How long was he asleep?  
He asked Coran that outloud, his eyes straining to stay open. Until Coran started counting on his fingers and Lance’s face fell.  
Please say hours, please say hours.  
“Um, by the date today, I saw, two days.” Lance mouth dropped open in shock “Wha- two days!? Please tell me you're joking,”   
Coran always joked, and he did get the time wrong occasionally, saying finger counting is more of an art than a science.

Until the doors slid open, and Keith walked in looking weary “Coran, is Lance awake?” he sounded tired, as if he said it over and over again. Keith looked up and visibly flinched as he saw Lance sitting up. And gave a little wave.  
“Lance! You’re awake!”   
Keith moved forward as if to hug him, then paused, Lance gave him a hopeless smile “C’mere, Keith.” He held his arms wide, reluctantly keith hugged him, he was really tense but Lance sighed, first contact of Keith that wasn’t volatile.  
Lance had to admit it was a little strange, he had to stop himself from shaking, Lance had to remind himself that this wasn’t the bad Keith, it was his friend in his universe, they fight but they were still friends, weren’t they?  
Keith leaned back and he was still beaming, it was an odd look on his face that was for sure.  
“Lance- you have to see this!” Keith stood up and waited for Lance to get up, Lance laughed as he wobbled and Keith face fell and tried to catch him, Lance waved him off “Chill, I’m fine. Okay what was it?”   
Lance got out of his pajamas, and followed Keith once he was dressed and the two began to walk down the hall at a brisk pace with Coran on their heels.  
Lance huffed a laugh “Dude, chill I just woke up from a Coma.” Keith turned around his eyes holding a secret.  
“You’re not the only one.” Lance saw he was being led to the Medbay. And frowned “hmm? Who?”  
Keith walked faster, lance had to admit he’s never seen Keith this happy, he was so used to seeing the guy angry, or tired. He was now noticing how well rested the kid looked.  
When they walked towards the cryo pods Lance froze to a stop.  
His breath caught in his throat and Keith took his silence for Shock...well he wasn’t wrong.  
“It’s Shiro! We found him!” Lance saw the man in front of him, just waking up from inside the pod, his eyes opened and Lance felt a chill.  
This wasn’t Shiro.  
It was his doppleganger.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay I’ve gotten back into the groove YAY!  
> Also Sorry if this is rushed- (all chapters not just this one) And I’m repeating myself, it’s just I get bored easily and this was supposed to be a few chapters not any longer.  
> Also I’m trying to finish this before August, It needs to be done before Voltron comes out. TT^TT

Lance felt his lips tug into the most painful, fake smile he ever had to pull.  
“I can’t believe he’s here.” Lance glanced at the others and saw they looked happy, even Pidge fist pumped the air “We’re all back together, now he has to wake up.”  
Oh dear god.  
Keith clapped Lance’s back “You had to sleep through it of course,” Lance shook his head “Two days straight- wait nothing happened did it?” He asked worried.  
Suddenly everyone was queit, even Hunk looked conflicted, Lance had a bad feeling.  
“What?”  
Keith was the one who spoke “That’s just it, Lotor is being silent.” Oh shit, that was bad news.  
“We cannot locate him,” Allura began “Or any other Galra rebellions, we worried to investigate with you and Shiro out of commision.” She mumbled.  
“What else is new?” Pidge snickered, trying to make light of it, then continued seriously “Hunk and I were able to contact the Blades of Mamoura,” Lance snickered “Those guys are the BOM.”   
If there were a cricket noise, one would play.  
“Oh, come on that was a good one.” Keith rolled his eyes, but seemed happy to have Lance back, Pidge grinned “Well, we also got the Olkari like you said, Everyone's on board for this Lotor take down we just need a plan of action.”   
Lance glanced at Keith “Thoughts?” Keith nodded then addressed the others “We should hunt down Lotor and take him by surprise, we have Voltron now and Shiro’s back we can take the fight to him and get it over with.”  
Lance grimaced, if this was his Shiro he would be all for it.  
But this guy, he glanced at the man in the pod, he didn’t trust him being the head of Voltron.

“Or we could wait and lay low, maybe do some recon and get more information on that weird time machine bra- thing.” He almost spilled what it was, only Keith noticed but Lance breezed by “Remember back to the future? Shit happens.”  
Pidge frowned and leaned back “You know out of all the things to pick from, why a time machine?” Hunk raised a hand “Oh, why not? I mean if you could build a time machine and had all the parts to it, you’d make one right?” Pidge nodded “I guess, I mean besides being stupid it is a interesting find.”

 

Keith sighed “Guys, come on.” Keith glanced at Allura “Princess, what should we do?” he asked and for once Allura looked put on the spot.  
“I, think we should wait for Shiro to wake up, as the head of Voltron it’s now up to him to decide.” Lance held back a grimace, he was afraid of that.  
It would only take a few more minutes until the pod opened up, and Shiro began to stir.

The crypod opened and Allura was the first to catch him, the others waited with baited breath as Shiro’s eyes opened.  
“Shiro! Are you okay?” The man's eyes opened, his eyes much darker than Lance was used to, he glanced at the others and felt a little panicked to wonder why they hadn’t noticed.  
Keith face visibly warmed “It’s good to have you back.”   
Shiro looked confused “It’s good to be back?” Lance tensed, even the others looked at each other “Shiro? What’s wrong?”  
Shiro glanced Pidge’s way and looked more confused “Um, nothing it’s just...weird, being here.” Keith gasped “Oh, you need to eat,” He began to lead Shiro away “It’s probably strange floating around in space then being here.”  
Lance stepped forward and took Shiro’s other arm “I’ll help.”

Once they made their way towards the kitchen and got some food goo in Shiro he began to become more coherent, he moved his bowl away then began to ask “What happened with Zarkon?” He asked and Keith began to fill him in, Lance could feel his heart sky rocket, as The man began to frown, as Keith explained about freeing other planets and gathering allies, with the Blades of mamoura. Shiro almost spoke but Lance ut in.  
“It’s great having our Team back,” He admitted brash looking at Shiro intently “We’re saving lots of planets, viva la freedom style, and protect everyone from the Galra. Even Allura said if we kept this up all the planets Zarkon took control over.” Shiro looked beyond lost his hands shaking from under the table.  
“What do you mean?” He sounded like he was threatening, luckily Keith didn’t notice, but Lance did.  
Feeling like he was poking a bear, he took a breath.  
“We were worried for awhile especially when Slav talked about y’know, alternate realities.” Lance patted Shiro’s arm “Thank god that didn’t happen, would’ve made it harder.”   
Lance deemed it fit better calling him Kuro, he just knew the name fit, especially when the guy eyes brightened in dawning realisation.  
“Good to know.”   
Now that disaster averted he glanced at keiths “Where are Matt and the others?” He thought Matt would be here for Shiro’s awakening at least. Keith was too busy focusing on Shiro that he looked surprised at being addressed at “Oh, um, They're in charge for watching out for Galra.” He admitted.Kuro looked up at this “Is that a good idea? I mean Rolo betrayed us before?” 

Lance raised an eyebrow, Rolo and the others betrayed the other universe too?  
Lance cleared his throat “Well, we have Matt and that other guy, whatsits.”   
Keith looked way too amused “You forgot his name, haven't you?”  
Lance flushed “Sorry that I forgot, okay? But with them two everything should be fine.”  
He spoke too soon.  
The three of them turned as the doors slid open, and Slav took a step inside “What’s with all the commotion-” He froze mid step gaze zeroed in on Kuro.   
Slav looked ready to scream, Lance lunged and grabbed his mouth “Oh, will you look at that, just the guy I wanted to see- mind walking with me Slav, Buddy Ol pal?” Lance turned and waved at the both Keith and Kuro who looked beyond confused. 

As soon as they were a few hallways away, Lance let go, and immediately regretted it as Slav almost screamed out.  
“What is he doing here?” Lance shushed him “No- no don’t start, at least having Slav freak out made him a little calmer, “Slav.” He tried to reason to the alien “This is good right? You can use this Shiro to find ours! You said you needed something from Shiro or even their universe to pinpoint it.”  
Slav stopped screaming “That...could work- but is this Shiro...stable?” Lance glanced back, thinking back on the mirror verse with all the evil version of Voltron, experimenting Pidge, Hunk being just as bad, Keith trying to kill him and Allura was a racist psychopath...more so than usual.  
Lance took a long breath “I don’t know, I mean if Shiro can pretend to be Kuro why not the other way around.” Slav frowned.  
“...Kuro?”  
Lance waved him off “Just a nickname so I don’t confuse the two with you.” 

When Lance returned back to the others, finally happy to see Shiro walking about, he felt that the whole three hours passed by in a blur, Pidge and Hunk were more relaxed and Keith was more friendly, until they began the meeting.   
Pidge began messing with the holograms and spoke like a Lecturer “There is signs of Galra soldiers going back and forth at the Endiods Planet.”   
Lance rolled his eyes “I am so sick of this planet, could we ditch it already?” he whined, Pidge grin was malicious.  
“Nope, Galaxy defenders and all that jazz.”  
Lance grumbled crossing his arms, while Pidge continued “The reason why Lotor has been so silent? Was because he was coming here. I don’t know what makes this planet so important to him.”  
“Probably because the aliens there farm quintessence without destroying the planet?” Lance asked and earned a pair of off looks.  
“And you would know this because?” Coran asked and Lance tensed up, oh sweet Quiznack.  
“Um, I...Slav told me.” Keith raised an eyebrow at this “You’ve been hanging out with Slav alot recently.” Lance glanced at the others nervously, and Kuro he looked very focused, as if he was staring through Lance’s very soul.  
“Well, everyone paired off didn’t they? Slav was the only who was free.” Pidge looked heartbroken, huh never realised she cared so much.  
“Oh you poor soul…” She softly uttered looking absolutely crestfallen.  
“It wasn’t that bad.”   
“I was talking to Slav.”   
“Hey!”  
Slav meanwhile absolutely preened at the attention, Lance didn’t feel the need to correct her, Slav wasn’t that bad...in small doses.  
Extremely...small…

“Okay, before we start planning we should have the others here too.” Lance admitted once the others laughter had died down, “Before we start Lotor’s attack I think we should have the Gaia with us as they’d been helping.”  
Pidge nodded “Matt is on the way-”  
Kuro paused “Wait- Matt? As in…” The doors opened and Kuro froze his eyes landing on the figure in the doorway.  
Lance realised that Matt was getting nothing but happy reunions, because his face was nothing but indescribable.  
Matt brightened like the sun “Shiro!” And just like that Lance felt the whole world go in slow motion, Matt was about to hug Kuro. Kuro who he had no idea would react to him.  
Looking back and forth he was surprised to see Kuro looked...lost.  
“Matt?” He took a hesitant step forward then ran forward gathering the boy up in his arms.  
“Oh- you’re alive!”   
Lance blinked well...would you look at that.

“I missed you Shiro,” Matt pulled back “What happened to you?” Matt looked down his eyes wide “What happened to your hand?” Kuro chuckled “It’s a long story…”  
Lance leaned in towards Keith with a very bitter scowl “How come when you get kidnapped by the Galra you turn hot? Matt and Shiro, you.” Keith’s head whipped around “What?”  
Lance continued on “I want to get kidnapped.” He pouted not seeing the horrified look on Keith's face, Keith glanced back at Kuro and Matt and let out an exasperated huff.  
“You look fine to me…” Lance didn’t catch that, he was too busy watching Shiro twirl Matt around like a disney princess.  
Well not exactly, but it was a close thing.  
Hunk cleared his throat “Hey I don’t want to disrupt this beautiful, uh, reunion, but Lotor. Endiod Planet. Saving the world from this weird Time Bubble?”  
Kuro glanced his way looking beyond lost “Time...Bubble?”

Lance slapped his forehead “Crow- We almost forgot to tell you.”

They were all circled around a table, other’s had arrived, Isa and Rolo as well as Koivan, once they settled they explained everything to Kuro who took it all with a very blank face.  
“So time repeated, over and over.” Kuro said but was looking directly at Lance, he swallowed “Um, Yeah. I mean it wasn’t fun.”  
Kuro leaned forward “And you’re the only one who experience it?” He asked, sounding genuinely intrigued. Lance paused suddenly feeling wary “Um, no one had a clue, just me.”  
“Interesting.”  
That tone. It kind of struck him the wrong way.

“This time bubble,” Kuro turned from him to Lance, and he was finally able to breath “What more could you tell us on this?”   
Matt took a breath “Lotor plans on using some form of energy as a power source, Slav mentioned the neighboring Planet Endiod could harvest the life source into Quintessence with that and Voltron, Lotor may be able to stretch time and space just enough to save Zarkon.”  
Pidge adjusted her glasses “It was only a few week ago, If Lotor was planning a time he would do it soon.” Lance opened his mouth then closed it.  
Just a few weeks?  
“I think we should try to plant a virus.” Matt began and Lance frowned up at him, since when was Matt standing?  
Pidge sighed “Matt, I don’t think a simple virus is going to able to put a dent in it. Also we tried a virus before, and they’ll be expecting it.” Matt shook his head “I mean a crystal, just like the one that the Galra planted in the castle, that you told me about? If we manage to get it close to Lotor it would disrupt his device. Instead of Druid, it would be Altean Magic I think Allura might be able to push it.”  
Lance was definitely frowning now, he...he had this idea. He told Shiro this just before he left.  
The others kept talking while bouncing ideas off of each other.  
Lance took a breath “What if we mix the quintessence with the crystals they stole from the Balmera?” Matt looked his way “They can do that?”  
Lance smiled uncertainly “Probably, they made Robobeast’s right? Who knows what they keep mixing together.”   
Hunk perked up “Yeah they mixed Galra and Humans together and made Keith.” Keith gave Hunk a look, and even Lance coughed into his hand.  
Too soon.  
Only Kuro was laughing, well, he would.

“Too soon bud, way too soon. But not wrong.” Hunk grimaced “Sorry bud,” He directed at Keith who shrugged “It’s fine.” Keith actually didn’t mind since Hunk was the only one acknowledging it in a non negative way he didn’t mind, like how comedians joke about real life crisis because humours the only way to face the dark stuff.  
Allura placed her hands on the table “We can corner off any Galra at the E Planet, and I’m sure we have a few backup crystals from the Bulmera I could practice on.” She smiled Matts way, her expression too warm for Lance’s liking.  
“I have to admit, Matt. That if you were here from the start I would have had trouble picking out the lions, Strategic mind, fast thinker and to survive this long, you obviously show great promise in combat.” She began telling Matt how wonderful he was and traits that Lance couldn’t link with any of the lions, it didn’t sound like any Lion he knew.  
Until Lance began to realise. If Matt was here instead, they would have done better, Matt clearly contributed more than Lance ever could, his face fell as he looked at the holographic plans of what they were going to do.  
Lance didn’t say anything, there wasn’t anything he could give to the discussion.

Allura glanced his way, her smile fading and then flushed not realising what she was saying “I mean, uh, I would not have known who would have piloted the Green Lion.” Allura clasped her hands together “Both of you and Pidge are so talented.”  
Pidge raised an eyebrow “I’m not sure if I should be offended or complimented.”

Once the others made plans to travel planet side and scope out Lotor first before making the decision, Allura kept Lance behind while the others left.  
“You thought I was going to say Matt would make a better Blue Paladin, didn’t you?” She asked and Lance exhaled.  
After a short beat, he nodded. “I never really heard the attributes of the Blue Lion.” He admitted, Allura looked ahead at the stars, “There’s no need to say it, because I’d be here all day. And everything I saw, will only describe your personality, but if there's one thing, I know that the Blue Lion...Represents Home.” Lance’s eyes widened “You bring so much normalcy to the team, when we need it the most, you practical integrated yourself here, making yourself at home, you see the Blue lion and think of the...water...what was it?”  
“The Ocean?” Lance said, now he knew he had a lump in his throat, Alluras eyes softened “I see the Blue Lion...And I think of Altea.”   
“Lance, you are not the only one who doubts your position on this team, not to say your suffering isn’t important, only that I understand.” She admitted “Half the time I could barely relate to any of you, it’s why I try so hard to prove I could do missions alone, that I can be independant, but Lance we both have nothing to prove, I realise that now. The Lion choose you, and even though my leadership could be improved I know it hasn’t failed us so far.”  
Lance took a step forward and held his arms out, Allura looked hesitant then leaned into the hug and relaxed.  
“I think you’re doing pretty great.”  
They both kept this a secret, but Lance knew Allura was crying, he was too and if she asked, he would say I won’t tell if you won’t.

 

They both left the room and began to make way to the Lions hangers.  
Lance walked to Blue and held his hand over her face “Okay, Beautiful. Time to mess with some froggits.” He suddenly felt amusement and wasn’t sure if it were his own or Blues.  
As soon as the Blue Lion lowered down and opened its mouth Lance placed his hand on its tooth and felt the thrum of energy, the lion was just as pumped as he was.  
He paused when a shadow fell over him, he turned surprised “Shiro?” He faced the man fully, albeit hesitant.  
“Didn’t expect you here.” Which he didn’t as Kuros lion was over there. The man Chuckled “Why, what’s wrong with talking to my favourite Paladin.”  
Lance blinked then glanced away “Favourite now?” Kuro crossed his arms and bent low until they were eye level, Kuro have a vicious smirk.  
“How was my acting?”  
Lance almost stopped breathing. But Kuro kept talking “Do you think I over did it with Matt? Everyone else did not seem to mind, except you.”  
Kuro’s eyes squinted in mirth, Lance tried to control himself, trying to look calm has never been so hard before in his entire life.  
“Wha-What are you talking about?” Kuro took a step forward and Lance almost fell back, Lance hand tensed over his thigh, just close to materializing his bayard, Kuro tracked the movement and his own hand began to glow purple, the threat obvious.  
Lance would never have his bayard in time.  
“You are not as dim as the rest of them.” Kuro deducted “You knew who I was before I even woke up.” Lance glanced at the others, unaware. Could he be able to escape- but Kuro was blocking his exit. Kuro was so close, Lance could see his arm flexing.  
“Tell anyone about this,” He began his gaze unwavering “I promise you won’t come back from this trip.”   
Lance swallowed, beyond terrified, even shaking he stood taller, his eyes narrowed “I wasn’t planning on it.” He stepped forward getting in Kuro’s face, who looked surprised at the boldness, then amused at Lance’s next choice of words.  
“If you hurt my team, you’ll worry about more than empty threats.”   
Kuro was quiet, then suddenly laughed, making Lance jump, Kuro’s eyes sparkled with glee.  
“You’re more fun that my Lance.”  
He didn’t respond, he only glared. Both were tense for a beat until Kuro’s took a step back his smile never faltering.  
“Make sure to keep our little secret, Lance.” He held a finger to his lips and retreated back to his lion.  
Blue closed her maw and Lance was only in the comfort, he made his way up the runway to the cockpit.  
Before he even made it to the chair, his legs gave out the sudden adrenaline leaving only miserable shakes behind, Suddenly he heard Pidge through the coms. “Lance! Are you coming or what?” Lance stiffened, then tried to stand on shaky legs.   
“Uh, yeah, yeah I’m coming.”


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It takes me three hours to write 2000 words, argh it's supposed to be 3000 each at least to avoid less chapters, sorry guys.  
> Also You know why I rewrite the whole fic? Because another writer said it helps and it has, but my stories are literally-   
>  “Lance is such a…” Then Kuro did this asafjag-fak, and Also he was angry and ahfahgawiF.  
>  It is literally jibberish and wouldn't make sense if I just posted it and my notes are in there like [Delete this later!] And it would be embarrassing to post that. ^^T

Once they arrived at the planet, they was no sign of any Galra ships, Lance glanced at the scans that blue was directing back at him “Um, Pidge are you sure that Lotor might be here? So far I see zilch.”  
He could hear Pidge exhale “I don’t know either, it’s bizarre, I could have sworn I saw scans of Galra coming here…”  
Keith spoke up “Shiro? What should we do?” They all waited for Shiro to give a command.

“We should go planet side and see what’s even down there that the Galra wants, I’d rather not wait here forever.” Agreeing to land, all the lions began to descend.

Stepping out of his lion, Lance never let go of his bayard once. He was hyper aware of Kuro watching his every move with how he acted around the team, he felt especially tense when he neared Pidge, not that she was easy- nope, Lance knew she had more of a chance knocking out Shiro than any of them, mostly due to her size and speed. But he had no clue how good Kuro was, usually Shiro held back…  
Not to mention the last time he came to this planet the inhabitants were fine, don’t steal their shit, but fine nevertheless, but that could make them dangerous in this reality. He did not want to take any chances.  
“Lance? You okay?” Lance flinched, and glanced at Keith. Oh if Keith's noticed then Lance was as transparent as water, he tried to force himself to relax “Sorry, just nervous…”  
“Nervous? About what?” Lance pressed his lips together “This planet- I don’t know, I’m just waiting for something bad to happen.” Keith nodded seeming to share his thoughts.  
“It’s best to be prepared.” Lance watched as Keith told the others to look sharp, it was strange to see Keith still acting like the leader, on instinct even though Shiro was here. It was weird but not in a bad way.  
As they walked forward Lance felt himself smiling, he would never say this outloud but seeing Keith grow and become comfortable with the others made him feel proud?   
They all advanced forward, and Kuro whole movements seemed graceful and timed Lance wondered if he moved like that all the time or if it was just Kuro.  
It was only making him more nervous.  
Suddenly Kuro leaned next to Lance, more than socially appropriate. “On your left.” Lance aimed his plasma on instinct and almost shoot the figure standing behind the tree.  
His eyes widened as he recognised the little Alien.  
It was the girl with the pigtails, and a froggit teddy in her hand. Although she seemed more frog-like than before.  
“Hold your fire.” Lance hissed, the others lowered their weapons once they realised it was a child, but the little thing hopped away before they could question her.

Kuro looked suspicious “It looked harmless.” Lance rolled his eyes “They might be okay, I think there's a village near here.”  
Lance walked forward and heard the others follow, there were the rock formations. Pidge glared “How in the quiznack- whoa.” Hunk picked her up and was able to heft her upwards towards the top “Oh, thanks Hunk.”  
“No Prob.” Lance stifled a smile, they were too cute it was a crime.

Shiro and Keith helped Hunk over and then climbed up themselves, Lance hefted himself up then almost fell backwards, luckily Kuro caught his hand and pulled him up, as soon as Lance was up he pulled his hand back quickly.  
“Thanks.” He avoided Kuro’s eyes and brushed imaginary dirt of him.  
As they kept going they saw a village down the hill, Kuro leaned close again “Nice work, finding the village.”  
It took him awhile to understand Kuro’s meaning, he seemed way too happy to find a village out here.  
As Kuro and Keith moved forward he heard Hunk step up beside him “Dude, you okay?” Lance frowned, was he that obvious?  
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you usk.” Hunk shrugged “I don’t know, you just seem...jumpy.”  
“I’m fine.”

Once they made their way over to the caverns, they saw the small froggit girl was paralyzed in fear just close to the entrance to the village gates.  
Pidge winced “Shoot-” Her bayard vanished, as did the others.   
Pidge held her hands up, but the little froggit still looked scared.  
Pidge drew closer “Hey there little guy- girl, um non binary person.” Lance shook his head, Pidge never ceased to amaze him.  
“Where are your parents, little one?” The froggit pointed east, towards the gate and over. Suddenly Allura’s voice talked over the comms.  
“Be cautious, Paladins.”   
“We figured.” Kuro said under his breath, too quiet for anyone else to hear.

Pidge held her hand out “Come on, we’ll take you home.”  
The scene was so adorable, Lance felt bad for shooting at it from the other universe.

“Um guys?” Hunk suddenly said as they began trek forward and being led by the little froggit, “Should we really be following? I mean what if they’re not friendly?” Lance glanced at Hunk,  
“We’ll never know if we just run for it, also Keith’s lion always appears when he stubs his toe, poor baby.” Keith scowled “Just because my lion responds to my calls, unlike yours.”  
“No need to rub it in, Keith.”

Once they arrived Lance almost stumbled back, they were farming Quintec, oh please Lion gods almighty let this be a peaceful planet. If not he’ll need to put Kuro on a leash in case he hurts somebody.  
The aliens saw the arriving group and all of them paused, Lance could feel himself sweat.  
The head Froggit looked angry “Who are you? Strangers?”   
Lance blinked, what was with his grammar?  
Kuro approached the group and Lance bit back a warning, he trusted Shiro to resolve all conflicts, but Kuro, he had no doubt he might cause a galactic war by sneezing.

“No need to fear we are the-” He glanced at Lance raised an eyebrow “Defenders? Yeah that of the universe.” Oh dear god.  
“We have come as a... peaceful troupe.” he sounded like he was in pain, or was only Lance noticing this?  
“We have heard,” Kuro continued “That you have been able to farm quintessence?” With reason they all looked defensive, seeing their lime greens kin change to red, Lance stepped forward before Kuro made this worse.  
Lance outstretched his arms “I know how this sounds but we don’t want anything to do with your farming resources, but the Galra do. We heard that we have come to this planet and plan to steal it.” This made the aliens pause and glance at one another, their colour changing from red to purple to blue, huh...weird mood colours.  
“How do we know this is true? You may Lie, Ploy to steal our quintessence.” He accused, Lance grimaced, been there. Done that.  
“We would never,” He held back a grimace, since...we he did.  
“We have magical lions, with a princess who can control quintessence, why would we need yours?” He asked, and that seemed to appease them for a little.   
“Stranger, who are you-”  
“Defenders of the universe, we just said,” The Froggit cut him off “I mean you- name.” Lance blinked “Uh, the names Lance,” Pidge almost snorted into her hand and nudged Keith who wore the same expression.  
What was there problem?

“Who are the ones, trying to steal?” Lance shook his head, this guy was killing him.  
Kuro stepped in “Prince Lotor, He’s building a weapon and with this much quintessence he may need it to power up his machine.”   
The head froggit puffed up his chest “We have no need for your help, it is impossible to steal from us.” 

Lance shared a look with the others “Well, do we have permission to stay on the planet and help defeat the Galra?” He asked at last.  
“Negative.”  
Son of a quizneck. Lance fumed even the others looked worried, even Hunk looked panicked “Lance- we can’t leave- if Lotor, oh god.”  
“I know buddy, but these guys could get in the way- or hurt if we don’t play this right.” Kuro crossed his arms “Why not just stay? There’s nothing they can do, their frogs.” Keith looked stunned “Shiro-” Lance cut in “No, it would make them suspicious, all the need is the froggits giving their stuff to the Galra for free because of the pesky Paladins.” Lance had no idea how they were going to play this.  
And currently Keith and Pidge were arguing- and seeing their banter bounce back and forth, gave Lance an idea.  
He turned back to the froggit that was watching the whole interaction curiously.  
Lance puffed out his chest “Alright- you say it’s impossible that the quintessence can be stolen what if we prove you wrong? Then we’ll stay and protect it. No better person right?”   
He hoped the endorion would call his bluff, he did not want to get stuck in a cave again, especially not with Kuro.

The froggit suddenly looked wary. “T-there is no need, your crazy face makes me think you have some tricks.”   
Lance did and that trick was called Mr Cave. but he guessed there was no need.   
Another Froggit appeared, much more longer “Maybe we should take the help, more allies the stronger our forces.” The elder sighed “I suppose, time does change many things…”  
Pidge took a step forward “May I ask, how is it you’re doing that? So far we know that quintec extraction usually harms the planet.” The Endorian smiled “Ah, It’s because we give back what we take. The quintessence is the life Chi of a planet, take too much it withers, but harvest just a little every new moon we are able to create this much to store it.”  
Pidge brightened her eyes expressing how fast her mind was thinking on all the possibilites.  
“What happens when you use it?”   
“We use it to heal the sick, or power the machinery.” The Paladins began to ease forward and mingle talking to the Endorians and looking interested in the harvest, even keith tried himself to see if he could Harvest, the golden glow of energy that the others had was absent, except a few golden specks appeared Keith managed to maneuver them into the Jar, looking completely shell shocked, Pidge instantly grabbed his arm asking he did that.  
And poor keith hadn’t a clue.  
But for some reason the Endorian Froggits were avoiding Kuro and Lance.  
Probably because Lance would steal their quantec, for the vine!

He glanced around the village and saw there were way too many openings for anyone to sneak in and steal whatever.   
How were they not robbed before? 

And how long would they have to wait? What if Lotor already stole the quintec? What then, they would be wasting time here while Lotor is attacking some poor defenceless planet.  
“You’re glaring at an Endorion.” Keith said making Lance flinch “Holy Crow- Keith, don’t do that.” Keith raised an eyebrow “And I thought I was anti-social, you noticed how open this place is?” He asked and Lance nodded “Yeah, we have Allura giving us updates in case our Galra friends give us any surprises. I’m just sick of waiting.”  
Until Lance eye’s caught sight of a wooden caravan, with jars of quintec, his eyes stayed on it.If he could easily steal it in another universe what’s to say Lotor wouldn’t do the same?  
“We should separate,” Kuro began at last and the endorians seemed to relax, until-

“Thief!” Lance blinked as a purple blur sped past, how did that thing get here!?  
“Traitors-” The others looked panicked, Lance growled “Lotor- Don’t worry we’ll get it back,” He tried to placate and ran ahead with Kuro on his heels.  
“Shiro? What’s going on!” Allura called through their coms and Kuro responded “Lotor is here- Blue and Black in Pursuit,” He kept it brief keeping most of his energy on running.  
Lance snickered “And that’s how he’ll look by the end of it!”  
“Nice one,” The compliment almost tripped him up, Kuro? Being snarky?  
Lance saw the Galra Prince ran itself towards- the cave! As soon as Lotor ran in, Lance and Shiro ran in after “Damn- we lost him.” Lance pursed his lips. And glanced at the crack in the wall.  
Raised an eyebrow he aimed and shot at the space, the wall fell to pieces and there Lotor stood, looking stunned, then enraged.  
Kuro’s jaw dropped “How did you-”  
“Lucky guess.”   
Lotor removedd his helmet and white hair spilled past his shoulders, and although Lance could feel his bad day getting worse, the more he looked at the figure in front of him, his lips curled.  
“Oh god not you.” Lance voice dripped with contempt, Lotor did not look impressed either “I could very well say the same thing about you.” Lance ground his teeth and heard Kuro hunch his shoulders “You better drop that.” He referred to the Jar of quintessence and Lotor scoffed “Anything for you, handsome.” He tossed the jar into the air.  
Lance yelped and managed to catch it in time, he had to deactivate his bayard to do so.  
Just as Lotor lunged towards him, Lance gasped his eyes widened as Lotor coming towards him like a freight train, to see the purple blur slam back by Kuro, straight into the rock formation, a glowing hand to his throat.  
Lance blinked staring at the two, opening his mouth, then closing it. “I-” He glanced around “What just happened?”  
The two ignored him, as Kuro loomed over the Galran Prince “What you did was pretty fucking stupid.” Lance gaped, Kuro didn’t even use the word Quiznack, colour Lance surprised.  
Lotor, instead of looking terrified like any sane person, only smirked “Little Champion, did you not hear?” Even a few inches shorter he looked threatening.  
“Your finished, no longer of worth in the arena. I replaced you.” Lotor stood straighter “Which means, you’re not in charge anymore!” Lotor slammed his leg in between Kuro’s crotch, that Lance’s whole body clenched with second hand pain.  
“Oh that- aye…” Lance grimaced then saw the both of them start to fight, it was a flurry of motions Lance had a hard time on concentrating on who was who.  
The purple did not help.  
He tried to keep a distance and activated his bayard, Kuro was hit and fell back against the rock and Lotor began to slam his fist into Kuro, Lance raised his bayard and held exhaled.   
Closing one eye and his finger hovering over the trigger.  
He hesitated for a split second.  
Which was enough as they switched places and Kuro had Lotor pinned, Lance scowled if he fired that Shot Kuro would have moved into place of it.  
Lotor was able to duck out from under Kuro, who cursed and grabbed Lotors hair, the man’s instinct was to twist and kick Kuro in the stomach, Lance shot at Lotors feet, hoping to distract him, Kuro was able to grab Lotor’s hand and pull them behind his back.

“I don’t think we have any cuffs Shiro.” Lance admitted, and the man face soured “Use a vine.” Lance moved towards the tree, his mouth pressed together, there was so many jokes he was not going to say, not in front of Lotor anyway.  
As he grabbed the vine he walked back over and saw that Lotor was babbling a bunch of nonsense “Okay Darth Vader, shut up.” Lance said and was about to reach over and tie Lotor’s hands.  
“Star Trek is better,”  
Lance looked up surprised that those words actually came out of Shiros mouth, while he was distracted Lotor thrusted forward and knocked Lance on his feet, and was able to elbow Kuro in the face, both Paladins down, Lotor began to run.

Lance spat “That jerk-” He stumbled upwards chasing after Kuro who was chasing after Lotor,  
“Lance!” Kuro yelled noticing the Blue Paladin was following.  
“Stay behind!” Lance offended, did not do as he was told “Shiro! I’ve got this!” He leaped upwards and activated his bayard and shot at the ground ahead of Lotor making the alien turn the other way.  
“Lance I mean it- stand down!” Shiro was gaining on Lotor and reached outwards, Lance knew Lotor was going to move out the way, he shot at his left making Lotor stumble.

And for Kuro to fall right into him, the two tumbled into a stack of limbs, but hey at least Kuro was on top and pining Lotor to the ground, with his foot.  
Lance still had the vine around his waist and was able to run and actually tie him up.  
Until Shiro’s dark glare was aimed at him, Lance leaned back “What? What did I do?” He asked wondering why Kuro looked like he was going to wrestle him into the ground.  
“We’ll talk later.” Shiro said, but it felt more like a death sentence.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I've drafted up all Chapters, now it's just the motivation to write the damn thing...-_-  
> Also thanks to everyone for the kudos and Comments, I really apreciate them :3

They walked back towards their lions and saw the other Paladins trying to calm down the Endorians, Lance ran forward “Hey, I got this back,” He handed over the jar and the Endorion eyes flashed “Oh my goodness, Thank you Blue Paladin!” He sounded awed and Lance puffed out his chest “All in a day's work.”  
“We apologise for earlier, and thank you for finding the thief.” The endoroins expression darkened as it landed on Lotors face.  
“Paladin, if you will, our people would kindly take that Thief from your hands.” Kuro opened his mouth, and it looked like he was about to agree, Lance almost told him how that was a bad idea until Lotor spoke.  
“You would never leave me to these barbarians, beautiful?” He asked looking at Lance.  
But the boy only looked conflicted “I wouldn’t bother trying to persuade Shiro. You would have a better chance of pursuing Allura. And she wants you dead by the way.”

He turned his attention back to the Endorian, while Pidge nudged Hunk.  
“Do you think Lance realised Lotor was talking about him?” Hunk nodded “Nope, let’s just not say anything.”  
Lance scratched the back of his head as he directed his next input to the eager looking endorion looking at Lotor like he was a piece of meat.  
“Um thanks, really thanks- But we uh, we need this guy for our own reasons, but don’t worry, he’ll pay for his crimes.” The endorion did not look happy.  
“Fine, if that is what you wish.”

As the loaded Lotor into the Black Lion, Pidge looked absolutely vibrating with energy. “Voltron is back!”   
Keith frowned frowned “Yeah, we were back since yesterday.” Pidge shook her head “No I mean, Saving planets, helping people, making a difference! Know what I mean?”   
Keith looked stunned, then he smiled “Yeah,” He looked to Shiro and Lance.  
“I do.”

 

“Congratulations, Paladins.” Allura spoke as soon as they came back from the planet, which thank god because Lance was beyond sick of it.  
Coran moved forward towards Lotor and took him “I’ll take that young man from your hands.”  
Lance quickly spoke before Coran left “Hey, don’t put him in a class cell, alright?”   
Coran gave Lance an odd look “A glass cell? What type of human does that?”  
Pidge took a long breath “Ignore him, we all do.” 

Coran retreated and Lotor only glanced back with a coy smirk, Lance wished he could blast that smug smirk of his face, but alas. Defender of the universe and what not.  
“So what now? We have the Prince of the Garla in our basement.” Allura faced Lance and her eyes were stone cold “We’ll interrogate him, see if he can tell us how to stop his weapon.” Pidge began to clean her glasses, then scowled when they became more smudged because you know, glasses suck.  
Giving up she gave a heavy sigh “We’re going to use the memory extraction to see if there's any weakness or possible way to disarm his device, Princess would you be okay with that?”   
Allura took a breath and her arms lowered “I admit, it was not the intention but for the good of the universe, there’s nothing I can do.”

Allura told the others they were free to their own devices, having Lotor give up information would probably take a while. “But what about the Planet? I mean the Galra could steal that qintec.” Lance said even though he was sick of the planet, they couldn’t just leave it.  
“Strange thing, the galra abandoned the planet as soon as Lotor was taken, they are probably thinking of ways to get him back. We should leave this system so not to cause any unnecessary destruction.” Allura turned around raising her hands “I’ve already set a course for that is too far away for the Galra to intercept us.”  
Lance frowned, the Galra just left?   
“Allura isn’t it a little suspicious that the Galra just…?” Allura nodded “I noticed it to, I have Hunk and Shiro as a lookout in case we get any surprises.”  
Lance had to admit he did not want Hunk and Kuro to be alone, but right now they had other worries to think about.  
“Okay, I’m just going to walk around the castle, if you need us just shout.”  
Allura smiled “I will.”

Lance was just happy to get a small break, he had explored most of the hallways in the castle by now that he had no clue what he could be doing now…  
But mostly he was just exploring to avoid Kuro.  
Who could blame him?

So colour him surprised when he finds a room, that looked unimpressive at first, but when he walked inside the whole room lit up and blue holograms rose from the floor up. And when the panel lights began to reshape and form, Lance almost stopped breathing.  
“Oh my god.”  
As quick as he stepped inside he ran back out and began to run down the halls to find a certain Blackette.

“Keith!” The boy who was just working out prior, ended the sequence and saw Lance running towards him, with a huge grin on his face.  
Since Lance had never been happy to see him before, Keith had a right to feel worried.  
“Keith!” He yelled again grabbing the boys wrist “You have to see this!”  
“What?” Keith gasped when Lance began to run and nearly rip his arm off.

“You have to check out this room.” Lance said at last when they were halfway there.  
“Why?” Keith sounded irritated already, funny how when you get older you feel like time is precious?  
Lance finally got to the room “Okay, you are going to love this.”  
“Is it another training bot?” Keith asked, but he was smiling, so that was a plus.  
The door opened and they stepped inside, the lights flickered on and Keith only looked confused “What is it?”  
Lance brows furrowed, shouldn’t it be obvious?  
“Oh wait- no.” Lance moved Keith closer to the panel and clicked a button, “Wait just a- aha!” Suddenly the hologram revealed a chess board.  
Keith’s eyes widened “Chess? You brought me here for this?” Lance beamed “I had no idea it was universal- but no, look.” Lance kept flicking through and the scenery kept changing.  
“I think this is some sort of strategy based game that maybe King Alfor or Altean generals used.” Keith leaned closer now looking just as thunderstruck as Lance felt.  
“How comes Allura didn’t tell us about this?”

“Did we have time? Plus neither did Coran, maybe they forgot about it. Anyway I think this could be a good exercise for you. I mean,” Lance poked “You keep fighting and gain body strength,” Then he poked Keiths head “But you disregard your mental strength.”  
Now Keith looked lost, while he was rubbing his forehead “But why? I mean Shiro’s back theres no need-“  
“Stop.” Lance said instantly halting Keith explanation.  
“Shiro wanted you to be the new head to Voltron, sure he’s back but now is a better time to ease into it instead of being caught of guard. Now you can be prepared in case anything happens.” Keith only stared when Lance glanced back at the program.  
“Now you have more preparation for it, you can watch Allura and Shiro and see how they do things, and learn from them.”  
Keith shook his head “I can’t I mean- We saw how I was as the Black Paladin…It didn’t…work.” Lance frowned.  
“Keith, it’s not just that. I learned this as well, from the fighter pilot program. I’m just think you’re at a disadvantage, so far we’ve been lucky but having a base idea on strategies, that could help not just you, but the team. I think Hunk and Pidge should a go too, maybe we could see if any of the patterns here Match with what the Galra are doing maybe we could see what their up too before they get the upper hand.”

Keith was giving him an odd look and Lance had no idea what it meant.  
“What?” Keith shook his head, “Nothing, I just-“

Suddenly the alarms blared loudly, both Keith and Lance gave each other a look before running towards the throne room.

 

Just as Lance and Keith made their way to the room, the saw Isa the one who accompanied Matt and Roo, panting as if he’d been running a marathon.  
“Princess! Paladins!” He gasped “We have trouble!” Allura’s attention snapped to Isa, “What is it?” She demanded, he stood up straight still gasping.  
“It’s Gaia!” Isa panted looking disturbed “It’s under attack!”

The others made their way to the upper levels where they saw Matt and Rolo talking feverishly.  
“Matt!” Pidge yelled stepping beside her brother “What’s going on?”  
Matt’s eyes furrowed “We had a distress signal- we don’t know how the galra found them, we were always steps ahead of them.” Matt looked infuriated, Pidge had no idea on how to comfort him. This Matt was completely different to the Matt she knew.  
“Well, there’s no wondering on how it happened, we’ll burn that bridge when we get there.” Pidge said patting his shoulder, earning a few odd stares from the others.  
“What?” She asked looking at the others, “We should go to planet Gaia and save the day as usual!”  
Lance glanced at Hunk “Pidge seems really pumped up doesn’t she?”   
Keith even looked amused, crossing his arms “I think she’s trying to impress Matt.” Pidge aimed her glare at the two, but Matt covered his mouth with his hands, his eyes crinkled in mirth.  
“Don’t worry, I’m impressed.”   
Pidge scowled and poked his side, it was amusing to see the taller boy shy away.  
Lance eyes flickered over to Kuro and almost did a double take, Kuro’s expression was strange the least.  
Usually he or Shiro were stoic or rarely talk, sometimes Shiro would even tease Matt or Pidge because he would surprise you like that.  
But Kuro looked lost, his eyes analysing everyone of them, maybe looking for weakness or something but the expression itself caught Lance off guard.  
Until Kuro looked his way, and smirked. Lance held of the urge to flip him the bird.

Hunk was the first one to sober up “So what’s the plan? If the Galra are going to be waiting for us, then how are we going to go about it?”   
Matt leaned over the table, funny how Lance found this strategy board game the others start using it. He’s never been so dang proud.  
“When we arrive we could surprise them,” Matt started and pointed to the diagram of the lions and his team infiltrating the Galra, but Lance cut him off.  
“But they have that time loop.” He reminded him, and the digram showed the lions getting trapped.  
“If we get caught in it, I’m going to get a headache, and we’ll all be captured like that.” He snapped his fingers “And if they couldn’t use it for some reason, they would use hostages.” He pointed at the holograms of the Gaia population in the corner.  
Matt raised the diagram to view the whole planet with the Galra ship on the outside.  
“The only way they could have broken our defense was to use the time loop, and found a weakness or chink in our design. Our guards who patrol have a two minute gap every twenty four hours. That would have been too long a wait, but with a time machine?” Pidge answered “That would have given them enough time to get in.” 

Kuro and Allura were watching the interaction of Lance, Pidge and Matt coming up with ideas while Keith and Hunk gave a random input here or there, but it was obvious who was making the ideas here.  
Allura had never felt more proud of all of them, “They’ve come so far, Shiro.” The man beside her nodded stiffly “They could be better.” He said and it caught Allura of guard.  
“What?”   
Kuro only stared ahead, at Lance.  
“Lance did not listen to my commands, because of his actions we almost lost Lotor.”  
“Could you blame him? The boy had to think for himself, suddenly giving that control over would be a little hard.” Allura said, and she was looking at Kuro strangely.  
Kuro’s hands clenched, if it was the other Shiro. Lance wouldn’t mind rolling over.  
It infuriated him.  
“I’m taking a walk, I’ll assume they know what their doing.”   
Lance glanced up noticing Kuro leaving, he suddenly tensed “Um Shiro? Where are you going?”   
Kuro glanced back, his smile ferocious it sent shivers down Lance’s spine.  
“I’m going to talk to Lotor.”   
Lance had never liked the Galran Prince. But right now he felt very sorry for the guy.  
Just after they made the plan, Lance still had a few doubts about it. The plan included separation, and Lance knew it was the only way Voltron wouldn’t be affected.  
It just didn’t sit well with him, this plan was more like wing it and see what happens.  
Right as he began to walk towards the Astro deck, he hoped he could have a nap, maybe if it was short enough he could rest and not go to anti-verse.  
But he was stopped by Matt.

“Hey, Lance right?” He asked and Lance surprised nodded “Yep, Anything I could do for you, Buckaroo?” Matt pressed his lips together as if he wanted to say something, then decided against it.  
“Lance, does Shiro seem...different to you?” He asked at length.  
Lance’s smile faded “Um, no? I mean, what do you- uh, do you mean?” He asked fumbling over his words.  
Matt raised an eyebrow “I don’t know, just something feels...off about him.”   
Lance sighed “He was floating around in space for a week, of course he might seem off.” Matt nodded “I hope you’re right, I do hope it’s nothing it’s just...never mind.” Lance watched as Matt walked away “Well, get some rest, we’ll be at Gaia in a few clicks.” Lance nodded “Right...right.”

 

Lance sat at the deck and leaned backwards on the stairs. He could feel himself nodding off, his eyes were getting heavy and even though the floor was awkward, he was too tired to notice it.  
And then he blinked and he was standing, and Slav was tied up and glaring at him.  
Lance was beyond confused and disoriented, he glanced down and saw his bayard was in his hands and the end of it was smoking, he glanced up surprised and saw Slavs eyes weren’t glaring- it was pain.  
Especially with the gaping hole in his right side. Lance gaped horrified and turned to see the others running towards him,   
“Lance!” Pidge growled, materializing her own bayard even Hunk looked enraged “Why did you-”  
But Shiro’s face, he looked terrified at what Lance just did, he grabbed Lance by the throat, but not hard enough so he wouldn’t breathe,  
“Why!? Why did you do that!?” But Lance couldn’t breathe, he could see his vision darkening and a few phrases being spoken by the others.  
“This is the last straw-”  
“He can’t be trusted,”  
“Execution.”  
Lance gripped Shiros hand “S-S…”

 

Lance woke up with a scream and fell to one side, he couldn’t breathe, he coughed and wheezed trying to get air back into his lungs, then he felt a pressure on his back rubbing soothing circles, he turned and something dark and he yelped falling backwards and scampering back.  
It was Shiro- Shiro was going to hurt him, he clutched his throat shielding it from the prosthetic arm.

The man blinked drawing his hand back looking just as stunned as Lance felt, Kuro, it was Kuro, but that didn’t reassure Lance if anything it made him more tense.  
“Lance, it’s okay. It’s just me.” Kuro took another space back, giving Lance more breathing room.  
Lance panted, feeling his pulse gradually return to normal, he gave a puff of breath.  
Then he glared “What are you doing here?” He asked Kuro with suspicion, Kuro sat down crossing his legs.  
“I think we should talk.” Kuro said at last.  
“I think we shouldn’t.” Lance shot back, making Kuro frown.  
“Lance-” But the boy stood up with an exaggerated groan “Look, You don’t want to be here, I don’t want you here, I want want my Shiro back, and you want to enslave the world not save it, is this enough summary for you?” Lance leaned closer as Kuro stood up the same time as he did, “So do us all a favour.” He said and poked Kuro in the chest hard “Lay low, and Shut the Fuck Up.” 

It wasn’t until Lance was walking away that he felt like he screwed up.

They arrived at Planet gaia and they were super confused.  
“Um, It feels like something's missing.” Lance said at last and everyone gave their guess on what was strangely absent.  
“Explosions?”  
“The mayhem?”  
“The freakin Galra?” Kuro growled at last, and he sounded furious.  
The lack of Galra or anything was eerie, especially when most of the inhabitants looked up confused as to why the Lions were hovering over them like annoying flies.

“Isa, What the hell was with that distress signal?” Pidge said, and there was no response from the castle.  
Pidge tried again “Isa?” Everyone heard them mess with their control panel to see if they could get through to the castle.  
Nothing was working.  
“Allura?” Pidge asked and the radio silence was deafening, Keith pulled at his controls, and turned his lion “I’m going to go up-” And before he could even do that, a shadow loomed over Gaia.

Lance felt through the bond the tense apprehension, the others felt. And he felt something he thought he would never feel again since the fall of Zarkon.  
His team mates were afraid.

Heck even Kuro was nervous, Lance dared to turn around, but when he did he had a problem picking his jaw up from the floor.   
The ship was bloody HUGE!  
“Guys-” Hunk sounded panicked “It’s going to-” Lance saw it too late.  
A purple light flashed as the sonic boom ricocheted around them and tons of screams began to build up like a horrifying symphony.  
Lance watched in horror as the Gaia civilisation was being destroyed before their very eyes.

“Oh my god…”  
Their was another fleet of little Galra ships landing on the planet, Lance saw the Blades of Mamoura begin to descend and attack the opposing threat.  
While the big main ship, turned and faced directly at them.  
“It was a fucking trap!” Pidge screamed, and suddenly moved into action as they dodged an ion blast, the lions separated.  
Lance’s gaze flickered downwards and saw two aliens in the direct line of fire, Lance leapt into the way of an ion beam and grunted, he could feel the energy strike his lion to the very core and vibrate back to him, he bit back a scream and instead yelled at the pair.  
“Move- Go! Go!”   
The alien scooped up their child and began to run in the other direction.  
Lance braced himself and heard Hunk crying through the comms.  
“Oh god- Is there more of them? Where are they coming from!?” Hunk evaded another ship, and Lance pounced into the air as he saw a few ships targeting him.

“Fuc- He’s getting away!” Lance had no clue who spoke, then visibly flinched when he realised it was Kuro.  
“Shiro, language,” he tried to amend, but grimaced when he heard Pidge screaming in his ear “This is a life or death situation, Lance! We can bloody well swear if we FUCKING want to!”

Lance blinked then spoke in spanish about how he was lucky his younger siblings weren’t this mouthy.   
He saw the Black lions move towards the castle, and Lance almost slammed his foot on the pedal to see Rolo’s ship move towards the Galra fleet, and they let them in!  
“Do you think Lotor was-” Hunk tried, thinking the same thing as everyone one else. Lance growled “Yeah, Hunk. I think Rolo and whatever his name is had Lotor on that ship with them.”  
Lance wasn’t mad.   
Especially with what happened about them stealing his lion previously, oh no. That was all water under the bridge, yep he wasn’t mad.  
He. was. LIVID.

And the next time he see’s Rolo, he was going to tie him up, Charge up his plasma gun and not shoot him, oh no, he was going to place the red hot burning pistol at Rolo’s face and scald his skin right off!  
“Um, Lance? A bit...out there, huh?” He heard Hunk, who sounded very distressed.  
Lance almost slammed into a Galra ship unintentionally.  
“Shi-, Did I uh, say that out loud?”   
“You did, and I’m proud.” Kuro purred, sounding way too pleased with himself, and thankfully all the attention was moved towards him.  
“What now?” Keith asked sounding very weirded out.  
Lance panicked.  
“We need Voltron- like right now!”  
He heard Pidge yell back at him “Uh, wasn’t that a BAD plan? I thought that meant it’d be easier for us being captured!?”   
“Then what the hell do we do?” Keith ground out, flying through the sky, but even he was having trouble.  
Lance looked up at the enormous fleet, they haven't used their time bubble yet, in all that time.  
So can only Lotor activate it?  
“Guys, we need to get to that fleet,” Lance said at last and heard Keith yell back “Are you crazy? We can’t leave the other ships here.”  
“Then you guys stay, Keith and I should go in, and take them from the inside out.”  
“Why you and Keith?” Pidge asked, sounding miffed.  
Lance pulled his lever angling his lion upwards “Because Keith is the fastest, and Shiro just got back from a Coma from flying in space so...yeah.”  
“Fair enough.” Pidge admitted and they heard Shiro sigh “Fine, be safe because I’m not in the mood for saving you.”   
Lance frowned “Sure feeling the love, Shiro.”  
“Hurry up! You only have one chance!”


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay. My dog decided to be a cat and just wouldn't leave me alone, so this chapter is posted a bit later than I'd like it.  
> Also, um, I'm trying to avoid sterotypes or stuff thats already been done in fanfiction, but well...the next few chapters may be cliche but they kinda ended up like that?  
> So Thank you everyone that's been following the story so far and hope you continue to enjoy it.

Lance and Keith prowled forward, and the main ship seemed to know their intentions as the cannon aimed towards them, Lance easily ducked “Keith! Use the flames on these doors.”  
When the lion opened it’s mouth and used the flames the melt the metal from the door, it was right at the access point,  
“It’s not working!”  
“I got this!” Lance used his ice and the whole door looked like a charred crystal.  
“What the hell did that do!?” Keith sounded irritated and Lance scowled and flipped his whole lion spinning and the tail struck the ice shard and the whole door caved in.  
“Um…”  
“You know when hot and cold things expand then get smaller, sort of why you don’t put a glass of water in the freezer as the glass would crack from the expansion.” Keith was silent and Lance preened.  
Both used their lions to expand the hole by clawing it to shreds, most of the Galra looked alarmed as the lions were literally clawing their way inside.

“So what's the plan?” Keith asked, and Lance responded “Get Lotor, Kill Rolo, and destroy the machine, unless they have multiple then that’s just going to be embarrassing.”

“Halt!” A Galra android yelled, Keith’s red Lion only slammed a paw turning it into mutated circuitry.  
Lance saw more Androids coming from one direction, while the actual Galra were coming from.  
“None of them are coming from the middle. And now the Galra are shielding the middle...no subtle at all.”   
Keith rolled his eyes “No shit.”  
They both in their lions, moved in sync, Which if Lance thought back on was really creepy, but at that moment, was really cool.  
Most of the galra were knocked unconscious as Lance and Keith barreled into the walls towards the middle, the walls suddenly collapsed. 

Lance and Keith stood and saw it was a large room with open windows to the outside onslaught.  
And lookey here, Lotor along with Rolo and Isa turned surprised, oh Lance eyes tunneled in on the three. Once they caught him he was going to make them pay.  
“Freeze! This is a stick-up!” Lance crowed, Keith glanced his way “What now?”  
Mostly everyone looked confused and Lance sighed “Ah, I forget, I’m dealing with Aliens here.”  
“I think you said it wrong.” Keith disagreed making Lance glare ahead “Don’t correct me, the adrenalines high!”

Lotor smirked and raised his arm as if he was checking his watch- wait what was that on his wrist?  
“I wouldn’t celebrate just yet.”   
With one click of the button Lance could feel his lion shudder, “Blue?” A shockwave shook through to him he couldn’t let go off the controls, he felt as if his whole body was being electrocuted and when he heard keiths screams through his headset, he knew Keith was feeling it too.  
Then it stopped, and the light clicked of and both the lions collapsed.  
“Blue!”   
Lance looked up and saw the galra advancing, towards HIS lion.  
Lance growled and leapt out of his seat, he patted Blue’s interior “I swear they won't get you baby.”   
Opening the top hatch he climbed onto Blues head, just like Keith mimicked with red materializing his bayard.  
Lance did the same and glared at any Galra that dared to step further.  
Keith leapt from his lion while Lance ducked low onto his stomach, missing returned fire while able to shoot his own, not missing his mark once.  
Lance noticed Rolo and Isa begin to back off, then Lotor pressed something else on his friendship bracelet.  
“Keith!” Lance shouted in warning, but it was too late, before his very eyes he saw Keith move backwards and suddenly leap upwards to his lion and time seemed to resume, Lance even saw he was standing again.  
He yelped as a stray plasma shot past and fell onto his stomach, most of the galra knew Keiths moves and were able to intercept and suddenly had Keith on his back with their foot digging into his collar bone.  
Lance grit his teeth, wishing he could shoot the Galra but it was pointless especially with Lotors tacky freaky first grade friendship bracelet  
Lance focused on Lotor and saw he had a few bodyguards both looked weak enough to take down in one shot.

Deciding what to do, Lance leapt forward, shooting both of them down and dodging any Galra that tried to tackle him, he’s never been so happy to be wiry and lithe before. Lance got closer and pounced upon the Galran Prince, Lotor fell to the ground as Lance straddled his waist with his bayard pointed at his face.  
Loto’s shark like smile spread with one finger on his bracelet, Lance’s eyes widened “What the Cheese?”  
With one blink he found himself back on the blue lion and cried out falling to his front when many shots were aimed at him, and he heard the yelp of the red Paladin being slammed into the floor again.  
Lance glanced up as the firing stopped as Lotor stepped closer.  
“Unlike my father, I actually listen to Haggers suggestions, if he had, the Black Lion would have been his from the very start.”  
Lance glowered, he could run or shoot the guards, Lotor would see it coming, the Blue Paladin knew in all these Scenarios he could not get caught.

Instead of moving forward he stayed on top of his lion and shot the Galra from there, Lotor only raised an eyebrow, he could hear Lotor walking towards him.   
Lance cursed after he saw all the Galra were down except Lotor, he aimed for the purple prince and cursed when he dodged a Plasma to the face. He slid down the back of Blues head and leaned against the blue panel, he heard Lotor’s step falter then begin their crescendo.  
Lance waited a beat counting his steps, then when Lance knew Lotor rounded the corner, Lance swung his bayard blindly and whooped when he heard the satisfying crunch of his nose.  
Loto yelped and fell backwards and Lance leaned over him pointing his gun.  
“Suck it Lotor, oh no.”   
Lotor with a bloody nose scowled and slammed his hand over the button on his bracelet.

Lance was seriously getting whiplash, this was loop number...35? 36? He had no clue.  
He was on top of the lion, again. And Keith was on the floor, again.  
Lance pursed his lips, how long does this time loop work?  
Taking a breath, Lance jumped from the lion and held back, waiting for the Galra to come to him.  
He was sick of wasting his energy on these purple assholes.  
Lotor placed a finger to his chin, the gesture kinda creeped out the Blue Paladin a bit, why in the flying Quiznack was Lotor staring at him?  
As the galra drew closer, Lance tried to drag it out as long as he could, using the lions as a barrier, the galra chased the Blue paladin in a weird parody of ring around the posies.  
It was easy to knock most of them out, just as the Galra got close, Lance skidded on the floor towards Keith.  
Lotor gasped not seeing this turn of events as Lance shot the Galra down and Keith managed to throw the others off in their distraction.  
As soon as the two were able to face the Galra coming towards them.

Lance found himself back on his Lion.  
He has had enough of this, he stamped his foot “For gods sake! Keith if you get caught one more time I swear- oh for the love of Quiznack.” When Keith stepped out of his lion he looked confused.  
“What- AH!”  
He was caught.  
Lance internally screamed.

“So that’s how you did it.” He heard Lotor voice drawl, and Lance turned slowly in horror, he was not supposed to say that.  
He saw the chesire like grin forming on Lotor’s face.

Lance was waiting for another time loop but visibly startled when the whole room began to waver and ripple, and then a few structure beams warped and bent inwards before completely exploding into a cloud of smoke, Lance ducked “Whoa- what the-”

Lotor did not look surprised, he only rolled his eyes “Did you expect no consequence, this mere toy,” He gestured to his wrist “Can bend space and time around it, sooner or later it may break all realities.”  
Lance tensed, realities.  
“Then why in the quiznack are you using it for?” Lance gaped, Lotor wasn’t just an evil Jackass, he was a crazy one too.  
Lotor continued as if Lance hadn’t spoken.  
“Did you honestly think you and your Paladins could have a chance of defeating Zarkon?” Lotor sneered looking beyond disgusted “If he wasn’t so distracted with the Black Lion, no one would have stood against him? He was merely compromised and never listened to his advisors.” For once Lotor looked caught off guard and vulnerable.  
Lance was surprised by the honest pain on the young Princes face.  
“...He would be alive now.”  
Lance almost felt bad. Then scolded at himself for feeling bad for Lotor. About ZARKON!

Lance did not move but Lotor gestured, “Come on down, we already went through every possible scenario, I’m sure you seem to be bored too.”   
Lance felt wary, as he descended.  
“Lance don’t listen to-” Keith grunted when a Galra struck his head, Lance faltered.  
“Whoa, no- no, no, no.” he stuttered out holding his hands up “Calm down.”  
Lotor seemed to gain pleasure from seeing the Blue Paladin panic, “Maybe we could form an agreement,” Lotor spoke softly and extended a hand “You, miraculously are immune to this,” He gestured to his wrist “I wouldn’t allow such a thing to go to waste.”  
“Thing?” Lance gave him a dry look, but Lotor continued nevertheless.  
“If you’re compliant,” When did Lotor get this close? He was reaching out to- he was touching his face.  
Lance was caressing Lance’s cheek.  
A full body tremors rippled through Lance’s body. Lance’s lip curled like a dog that did not want to get touched.  
Lotor eyes crinkled in mirth “I would gladly let your friend go.”

Oh god, he had to have a tally by now of how many times Lotor has horrified him, he leaned back “Um Really? You’ll do that? Like legit pick Keith up from the floor, put him in his lion and let him go?”  
Lance asked because he is calling bullshit.  
“I could shoot him right now.” He took delight at Lance’s flinch, his smile growing more so   
“Even so, if I have the Blue Paladin in my grasp then Voltron is no more. Either way both have an advantage.” Lance almost blurted that if Lotor got rid of him, Allura could still pilot Blue.  
Then paused, that could work in his favour.

“Okay, Okay. Fine I’ll agree but I have to know something.” Lotor grinned “And what is that?” Lance directed his look at Isa and Rolo held back by Galra guards.  
“What happened to the Altean Castle?” Lotor turned raising an eyebrow in their direction.  
The Galra gripped Isa’s arms tightly who grunted “Alright! Okay- I only took out their systems, it would reboot in 10 minutes but that was enough for a getaway.”   
Lance held back the sigh of relief, they were safe.

Lotor glanced his way, and Lance for a horrible moment felt lost. He was not in control at all and his muscles were pulled taught he had no clue what Lotor could do, and the fear was killing him.  
Until Lotor leaned in close “Those two betrayed your trust. How would you have us dispose of them?” Lotor whispered so the others couldn’t hear them, Lance’s eyes narrowed “What?”  
“You want them to pay, I can tell. That look of rage is so familiar to my own, If you wanted too, you could do as you please. I know deep down you're just as vicious as I am.”  
Lance froze, was he? Was that why he was able to blend in with the other universe...because he and the evil version of himself was not so different.  
“Lance- Don’t listen to him!” Lance gaze turned towards Keith’s panicked one, he had no idea what they said but why did he look so worried?  
“He’s a liar! He’ll never keep his word!” Lotor looked tired of Keiths yapping, he waved a hand and the galra suddenly dragged Keith to his feet.  
“No- Don’t!” Lance thought the worst, Lotor was going to kill him, until he saw with surprise that the galra tossed Keith into his to his lion closing it behind him.

Lance body uncoiled in relief, thank god. Now he’s going to feel bad for double crossing Lotor- but before he could even do anything. The windows to the main control deck exploded, Lance shielded his face and gasped to see the Black Lion poking it’s head through the ship.  
He heard Kuro yelling through the comms.  
“You’ve been here for over an hour! What the hell took so long!?” Lance blinked “Over an hour? What the-” Suddenly the room began to tip, and Lance leaned his body back as he and the others began to lose their balance.  
“Hunk! What did you do!?” He heard Pidge gasp through the comms she sounded hysterical, Hunk responded sounding apologetic “Sorry, I don’t know what I just did, but the main ship is falling, thats a good thing right!?”  
“No!” Pidge sounded exasperated “Not when Keith and Lance are still on it!”  
Lotor was falling backwards and Lance tumbled forward with a yelp, he grappled blindly and grabbed Lotor’s wrist to steady himself.  
“Falling for me already?” Lance scowled, is this what it was like when he flirted with others?  
Lance growled and grabbed for Lotor’s other wrist, for his bracelet.  
Lotor only sighed like he was dealing with an unruly child. “Did you think that was the only one?”  
Lance paused then smirked “Well NOW I know there’s more-” Lotor grabbed his throat, “As if I’ll let you go for being so rude.”  
“Dude, you haven't met Keith.”  
Lance’s eyes bulged when Lotor tightened his grip, quiznecking hell, this guy was like a Vulcan.

Suddenly the Lions couldn’t deny gravity, and began to slide forward as the room was turning more vertical, Lance and Lotor glanced back and blanched.  
They were going to be crushed by the lions.  
Lotor moved them out the way, and pinned Lance to the floor, Lance blindly clawed at the Galra prince and turned to see the lions fall forward, Blue and Red fell through the windows, Kuro cried out and pulled out the way.  
“Shiro- help Keith!” Lance cried out seeing both Lions fell towards the planet.  
“What? He’s fine-”  
“Reds not working- He can’t fall at that height.”   
“Lance!” Kuro growled looking ready to do anything but, Lance had enough screaming through his headset.  
“Save him, Shiro- Goddammit!”   
He heard the Black Paladin scowl through the cooms, but saw Black turn and dive towards Keith and grab the red Lion, Lance relaxed, now he could focus on Lotor.  
“You have caused me so much trouble Paladin.” Lance gave a cocky grin “It’s my middle name.”   
Lotor furrowed his brows at the idiom, then decided that all Humans were weird continued on trying not to look disgruntled, trying to gather his composure he grabbed Lance’s face digging his claws in.  
“You won’t die today Paladin.”  
Lotor’s eye shone bright “Far from it.” And Lance felt the whole room darken and then warp around him as the surroundings vanished.  
Lance was not aware, but he and Lotor had vanished from the destructing ship and transported somewhere else. Far away.

 

Kuro could only gasp as he grabbed the Blue Lion, and Keith was finally able to get his powered back up, both saw too late the ship fall towards the planet and crumbled into the earth shattering in the process and the engines explode.  
Even though it was loud, a cry of anguish and pain grew around as most of the aliens couldn’t get out the way in time.  
The Other Paladins landed and all of them ran towards each other, they ran towards the ship blindly pushing way rubble and searched for any signs of life.  
There were no survivors. And no sign of Lance or Lotor.  
Pidge turned to the others, her face dropping in horrified realisation, when Kuro told them what he heard from the comms.  
It was clear to everyone that Lance was kidnapped.

Keith didn’t say a word, he looked ashen and Kuro watched the interaction, these Paladins cared more than the ones he knew. And he had to admit the things he felt weren’t so different. Unlike the sorrow they had, he felt an unadulterated rage. He was surprised he was still thinking calmly.  
He would never be so soft spoken with the others in his world, but here they seemed...fragile.

He kept calm and spoke of a possible plan of action, until he saw Matt, one of the Gaia- one of the TRAITORS, dared to run towards them.  
“What happened-” He dared to look at them with worry in his eyes,  
Kuro’s gaze slid to his, Matt.  
It was his fault. Just as Kuro was about to use his arm to tear the boy to shreds, Pidge beat him to it.  
With the speed of a jaguar, she swiveled, slamming her brother against the broken metal plate, all that was left of the Galran ship.  
Her face contorted into blind rage “You mother fucker!” She screamed tightening her hold on his chest plate, Matt looked panicked his legs scrambling, Hunk looked very alarmed “Pidge!”  
“You betrayed us!” She sobbed her anger still evident but hot tears fell down her cheeks.  
Keith only looked up slowly, almost like a zombie “Calm down Pidge, he probably didn’t know.” But he didn’t sound so sure, he only looked at Matt and his expression alone was worse than anger.  
Keith looked as if the fight was drained out of him.  
Hunk placed his hand on Pidges shoulder and she let Matt go and fell into his chest hiding her face, Matt reached out.  
“Katie, look-” Hunk glared daggers at Matt, stopping him shot “Back of Man, just because I won’t let Pidge do something she’ll later regret, doesn’t mean I’m so forgiving.”   
Matt swallowed.  
Hunk then directed his glare at the ground “Rolo betrayed his before. We SHOULD have seen this coming.”   
Keith squared his shoulders “Stop it, all of you.” He sounded much more animated than before, probably getting over his shock, he glared at Matt.  
“Did you know about this?”  
Matt shook his head “No, no I had- I trusted Rolo and Isa, I thought they were my friends…” he sounded heart broken but Kuro was the one that grabbed him by the front collar.

“And that makes everything alright!?” Kuro finally had had enough of this bullshit.  
Matt was slammed into the metal panel and felt all the breath knocked out his chest, effectively winded he could barely wheeze out “Shiro- What are you-”  
“Do you not understand how serious this is!?” Kuro shook him hard, making everyone else look stunned.  
“Lance could be dead! We’ve just lost a member of Voltron and you’re crying because you thought those traitors quiznacks were you friends?”   
Suddenly a hand pulled at his shoulder “Shiro-” It was Keith “Calm down, we’ll get him back. Lance is stronger than that.” Keith said, trying to hold Kuro back.  
Even Hunk looked surprised at his outburst but added his input “There’s no point placing blame, right now we need to find Lance.”  
Keith looked at Matt coldly “We are going to find Lance. And you’re going to help us.” Matt nodded still shaken but looking determined.  
“I’ll do anything.”


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> seriously the whole Lance goes to sleep and he goes to mirroverse is like Sora and Riku in DDD *sigh* good grief I've just realised this now as I was writing. Hope you guys enjoyed this fanfic so far, the plan is to finish this before August, wish me luck :D

Lance reappeared in a different hallway more upright than the previous one and in no fear of crashing. The sudden vertigo made Lance fall forward and retch, his vision beyond blurry, what the hell just happened?  
Lotor looked less composed as usual his hair was a mess and his skin was pale and sweaty, his chest heaved whatever just happened it took it’s toll on him.  
If Lance felt like crap he had NO idea how Lotor was feeling.  
“Prince Lotor!” Oh god it was like nails on a chalkboard, Lance turned his eyes going cross like as he saw three Haggers coming towards him then they all snapped into one-  
Wait. Hagger!?  
He had heard bad stuff about her from Allura, and Shiro.

“There was an issue with the device.” Lotor stood straight brushing his hair back. “Only a small location was affected by it, the ship had crashed though that had no correlation.” He glanced at Lance “Mostly it was his fault.” Lance glowered but Hagger spoke gaining Lance’s attention.  
“The small structural breaks are of no importance, as long as Zarkon returns it is of no consequence.”  
Lance frowned “Um, Lady have you not seen Full Metal Alchemist, equivalent exchange and everything?” Hagger focused her yellow glare at him.  
“What is this you speak off?”   
Lance gulped “It’s a Earth Science Theory.” Lance stood up and raised a finger “That if you expect something from the unnatural order. Such as time Travel. Then you should expect a consequence, such as the exchange. In other words if you want something you have to give something back.” Lance’s eyes narrowed, “What use is bringing back Zarkon for five minutes if what the whole universe implodes or something, you know that small structure beam that broke, times that by six!”   
Lotor and Hagger glanced at one another “That has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” Lotor grinned “We have druids who studied this and they are able to harness that unruly chaos.” Hagger kept talking to Lotor as if the Blue Paladin wasn’t there.  
And Lance was not foolish enough to run, he heard horror stories from Shiro about this crazy cat lady.  
Lotor was discussing the device again “...Unaffected by the device? There must be a glitch. We will have to oversee further tests.” Lotor waved his hand.  
“Do with him as you please, but leave him unharmed physically, I want in back in my chambers once you are through.”  
Hagger looked towards the ceiling “Good grief.”  
Suddenly arms latched around him and was suddenly moving him forward “Hey what’s going on?” He turned behind him to see two Galra moving him, with Hagger leading them.

When they lead him down the corridor in front of a pair of doors, he tensed when they opened to a dark room illuminated by purple lights.  
Lance was shoved inside and the door closed behind him.  
“Don’t die on us Paladin, Lotor would be ashamed to have a pet as weak as you.” Lance sneered “Pet? That Prince is one deluded son of a bitch.”   
The doors slid shut and Lance was alone.  
The room they placed him in was small, only three paces apart. He flinched when Haggers voice suddenly drawled through the overhead speakers.  
“Let’s see how much you remember.” 

Lance shivered and he felt more apprehensive once the doors opened, to reveal a druid that hovered like a foreboding demeter.  
Lance took a step back materializing his bayard.  
Raising its arm lazily, dark energy appeared like a cackling, like a tesla coil. The druid struck his hands and he yelped dropping the ice sizzling bayard to the floor, he fell backwards as the Druid descended and the energy struck random places, it was a matter of time before it hit him.   
And once it did, he screamed in pure agony and felt his nerves fly like an overused socket.

With a stretched snap, it was over. He was alone in the room, Lance glanced around unsure, as nothing had even happened. Yet.  
He glanced down at his hands surprised to see they hadn’t been ripped or burned… the doors slid open.

It was the same druid as before, Lance activated his bayard and managed to dodge the attack, he backed into a corner as the druid came closer, he shot at the druid, who merely dodged.  
Lance cursed then cried out when it’s purple hand latched around his throat, no-  
He screamed when he felt dark energy shock his very core.  
The druid let him drop to the floor like a limp doll.

And it continued on like that, Lance wasn’t tired, how could he when it kept repeating over and over, physically he was healthy. But not mentally, he could feel the phantom pains from before, and it was messing him up.  
“Stay focused!” The druid sounded enraged that Lance was not paying attention to him, he lunged forward and Lance braced himself, not expecting what happened next.

The Druid slice his leg, he fell backwards of balance eyes wide as the whole room seemed to slow, his right leg fell before his eyes limp, Lance looked down and saw just at his thigh, there was nothing but blood.  
The druid was still moving forward intent to cut of more than just his leg.  
Lance couldn’t feel a thing. He dropped his bayard and fell to the ground still in shock, until his hands moved to his legs quivering.  
Tears sprung down his eyes and his breaths were suddenly hitching.  
“Ah-AH!” He started screaming bloody murder, horrified that something was suddenly gone like a string being cut.  
He looked up and saw under the mask a cruel smiling face.

He blinked and saw he was back where he started.   
He was standing and the door hadn’t opened yet, he looked down horrified. His leg was still there, it wasn’t gone. He was okay.  
He still screamed falling backwards and clutching his leg, it was still there but his brain couldn’t compute that it was still there, the pain coming from his leg was absolutely agony, the door’s slid open and Lance shuffled back into a corner terrified “No more- no...no more!” He sounded distraught and the Druid paused confused.  
To him he hadn’t done a thing yet, “Hagger?”  
“End the sequence, we have all the data we need.” Her voice replied, but Lance didn’t hear, he was blacking out, his breathing was so loud even to his own ears.

Lance looked up, the Druid wasn’t doing anything just standing there talking upwards, his eyes slid to the door. That was still open.  
Lance will admit he blacked out, one moment he couldn’t breathe, the next he was running down the corridors away from a screaming druid.  
Suddenly two Galra soldiers saw him running then paused to see the druid “Need some help!” They called out Lance ran past and waved “I’m good!”   
They only stared as Lance ran past, then the druid.

This was new, was it a new test? Last time they did that they let him bleed out, surprisingly that wasn’t as bad as losing a leg.  
What if they planned to kill him this time?  
“Halt!” Hagger called out her hand extended and Lance’s body seized and his whole body had rose into the air.  
“My apologies, I will take him back and begin the experiment.” Lance’s breath hitched as the Druid spoke.  
But Haggers eyes narrowed “You have done enough.” Did she sound ticked off to him? Or was that how she always sounded?  
Lance was only waiting in silence until Hagger let go and he yelped falling to the floor in a heap.

He tensed when he felt a warm hand pat his hair “You have surprised me Paladin, Perhaps your Quintescence is stronger than I thought possible.” She spoke warmly, almost curious.  
But her eyes told him she was seeing him as a piece of meat.  
“There is further use for you yet.” Her eyes shifted to the druid the strange psychotic warmth from before vanished into a cool exterior.  
“Take him to his cell,” She told the Druid “We have further tests to run.”  
The Druid picked him up easily and began to descend further down the halls, Lance was suddenly all too drained to even put up a fight. Losing consciousness before he even got to his cell...

 

Lance awoke to being tied up to a chair, he looked around groggily his eyes squinting as he saw a figure walk towards him, he flinched. It was the Druid- it was going to finish him off!

His hands were being cut free “It seems that you shooting Slav was a good thing, honestly just think before you act for once.” Lance looked up in surprise, “Shiro?” It was Shiro- his Shiro he…oh yeah he fell asleep.  
“Wait- what about shooting Slav? Why did I- Lance do that?” Shiro blinked then kneeled down leaning closer.  
“Slav knew about you, and me, unlike ours he was freely telling Voltron everything, Mclain took care of Slav before he could spill.” Lance frowned “How did that go other with the others?”  
“They didn’t like it, hence why you were tied up.”  
“Were?” Lance asked finally getting up and winced he looked down, his breath hitching to see his right leg was gone.  
“Shiro-“  
“Lance I’m so sorry, but that’s how Allura punishes her people,” Shiro even held his own arm close to himself.  
Lance couldn’t breathe.

Shiro continued “The only reason you’re alive, is because Mclain extracted data from Slavs mind before he was killed for Pidge to work through they have years worth of information. Lance with this I think that’s what the Galra did to our Slav back home- Lance!” Lance collapsed, tears streaming down his eyes.  
“Lance, what is it.”  
“I- I can’t feel it Shiro…I can’t feel anything…” Shiro’s brown eyes widened then he gritted his teeth holding Lance close.  
“I understand, breathe with me Lance, one two…” Lance breath hitched and let Shiro manhandle him.  
“I can’t feel anything Shiro…I can’t feel anything…”


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, need to organise my notes again, sorry guys. But I will get it done by Monday, since I work Sat/Sun it sucks I know...Hope you guys enjoy this fic.  
> It's almost coming to a close with the whole Lotor-Hagger VS Voltron, as an action scene I hope I make it exciting enough.

Lance was too much in a state of panic to even be aware of his surroundings, one moment he was in his cell and the next he was in Shiro’s bedroom, and he could hear Shiro talking? At first it was gibberish but the more he spoke the more it began to ground Lance. He was okay, he was legless but okay. Maybe if he mustered up the energy he would make an elven lord of the rings joke.  
“And that’s when I met Keith, he convinced me to play hookie when I was getting too stressed out, you remind me off him sometimes, he’s more serious now but he’s starting to come out of his shell, and I worry about Pidge, from what you say I know she’s okay finally eating and sleeping and yelling at everyone again but I just need to see it, for myself that everyone's okay I just worry and looking at everyone here isn’t helping me, I see their eyes and I know they would hurt me, us if they knew what we were…”  
Shiro glanced at his own arm then saw Lance was actually paying attention and he straightened up “You okay?” Lance nodded “I think so, I mean I can breathe now...I killed Slav.”   
It seemed surreal, sure he thought Slav was annoying but he’d actually gotten close with the little thing after a while, it hurt that he was the one that caused it in this universe.  
“You didn’t do it Lance, it was not your fault, you did not pull the trigger.” Lance shivered and clung to Shiro closer “I...I was there, for a moment to see I...After Mclain shot him that's what I saw...I saw Slav die Shiro.” Shiro held him close stroking his hand through his hair.  
“I wish you didn’t have to see that...if I could I would make all of this stop and take you home, I would do it in a heartbeat.” Lance believed him.

They both talked, they just talked, nothing changed their situation but once there thoughts and feelings were out in the open they both felt lighter.  
Lance could only feel guilt that Shiro had no one to talk to, he saw how the prisoners from Sendeks ship looked up to Shiro, Earth, The Prison Cell even his team all saw him as an idol. An unwavering statue that stood firm and stoic.  
But he was eroding away before Lance’s very eyes, Shiro took a breath “May I touch you?” Lance frowned “Um, sure?” He had no idea what Shiro was doing until he began moving the blankets around he helped remove Lance’s pants so he was only in his boxers.  
Lance flushed “Um, Shiro…” He paused when Shiro settled Lance in a sort of Pillow fort and used some more to prop his leg.  
“An Arm is different than a leg so there's some things I don’t uh know…” Shiro looked really out of his element. It was refreshing that his leader wasn’t all knowing.  
It made him more human.  
“So Elevating your leg might make it better…?” Shiro did so and leaned next to Lance practically spooning him.  
Lance swallowed “It’s a little better, anything else I should know?” Shiro glanced up and hummed “Well, I was told that music helps,” Lance chuckled “Really, you’re going to sing me a song.” Lance said amused.

Shiro cleared his throat making Lance look at him in startlement.  
And he began to sing, and of course you would think it would be romantic, and it kind of was especially that Shiro had such a good voice too.  
It just felt a little awkward.

Playing music and someone you know is singing are two different types of things.  
Right until he got to the chorus, Lance knew he remembered this song, taking a breath he joined in, Shiro paused and then began to sing along both singing softly.  
Lance and Shiro were too busy focusing on what song to sing next, Lance forgot all about his Phantom pain. For now.

 

It seemed there was no rest for the wicked for evil Voltron. Once Lance apologised to Allura for killing Slav, (Honestly this place was so backwards) she decided to punish him with a mission with Keith and Shiro, of course.  
Yippie for him.  
His leg wasn’t in pain, but he couldn’t feel anything, you know like pins and needles but the point of no return where you could hit it and you felt nothing.  
It was bizarre and Lance almost fell over more than once, so here he was on another alien planet that could take Lance’ breath away, literally. Since the oxygen was non breathable but it was still beautiful.  
“Lance?” Shiro asked, and he turned when his name was called. It was strange to see that soft worried look on Shiro’s face compared to the cold cruel look he was used to seeing from Kuro.  
“Did you hear what we said?” He asked and Lance shook his head “Nope.” Keith frowned “You doing okay? You seem more subdued.” Lance rolled his eyes “M’ just tired.”   
At that response Keith scoffed “Seriously? You lost a limb not your motivation for christ sake.”  
“Wow, harsh.” Also Lance did NOT want a reminder that he was missing his leg, thank you very much.  
And of course he was tired, going through infinite time loops and waking to an alternate dimension with no rest would kill any sane person.  
“We found one of the rebels, Matt Holt.” Keith said at last with his arms crossed, Lance’s insides turned to ice.  
“Yeah, what about him?” He asked, why were they talking about this? Especially out in the open.

“It turns out his companions had betrayed us, Pidge is wondering what to do with him. That’s why we’re here, he came to rendezvous and if he has information. He’ll live.”  
Lance swallowed, was Pidge that ruthless that they’d kill their own brother?  
“Neato, So why isn’t he here yet?”  
Keith smirked “Oh this isn’t the meeting place for Matt.” There was something about the way he said it.  
“Wait, if not Matt then what are we waiting for...?”

“Who, is what you should be saying young man.” Lance flinched and spun around when he turned to see a Galra walk towards him.  
But not just any Galra, Kolivan.  
The Blade of Mamoura were still on their side here? That was reassuring for his universe knowing there won’t be betrayal in the next foreseeable future.  
Shiro stepped forward “Kolivan was it? How do we know we can trust you?” Shiro looked suspicious, wait they weren’t allies here yet?  
Kolivan was just as serious here than he was in his universe.  
“I have informants on the inside, Lotor has returned and has gathered Scaultrite. The Blade has theorised that he is planning something.” Suddenly Kolivans eyes narrowed.  
“They somehow know all about your...weapon.” Lance blinked as Keith looked enraged “They what? How!?” Keith looked ready to attack Kolivan as if he were to blame.  
Lance tumbled “Whoa-Whoa wait hold on just a-” He faltered feeling his vision turning black, oh god he was waking up-

 

“...It is very intriguing.”  
Lance groaned and rolled over burying his face in the crook of his elbow, he did not want to wake up to Lotor’s voice. Lance opened his eyes blearily, and realised there was a cuff around his hand.  
His eyes narrowed as he looked at Lotor “Dude- Space.” Lance said easing back when he realised the purple prince was leaning in too close.  
He tried to sit up, until a heavy armoured clad boot pressed onto his chest and forced him back down. Lance grunted.  
“ Ah- Asshole Quit it!” He cried out trying to wriggle from out underneith the boot.  
“He is immune to time loops, and he can take a beating.” Hagger recalled from the side, as if talking about a new deluxe iphone 8 instead of an actual person.  
Lotor looked too please with this new information.

“And with the Blue Paladin as ours, Voltron is crippled.” Lance bit his tongue from laughing, they still had Allura to pilot Blue. There was no problem with Lance being gone.  
Soon enough Lotor removed his boot and Hagger leaned close grabbing Lance’s chin and tilting it upwards.  
“Tell me, how is it our little project has no effect on you?” Lance shrugged averting his eyes “I’m just that cool.”   
Suddenly she moved back with a sigh, Lance thought she was going to give up, until a hand slid over his forehead “Why does your body temperature change the fact that your mind can process and infinite number of realities?”  
Lance frowned “I...what?”  
Lotor’s eyes narrowed “You said you were ‘cool’ does the temperature have a factor with how you managed too-”  
“What? No, no, no oh god. This is Keith all over again.” But much worse.  
Lance tried to cross his arms then realised he was still cuffed and scowled “It’s an expression, just an earth saying. Meaning I’m level headed and relaxed the whole mind tricks won't do a thing to me.” Lotor looked bemused “That’s a lie.”  
“That’s...kinda the point.” He couldn’t fault Lotor for thinking that, sometimes you say you’re fine when really you’re not.  
Lotor suddenly sat on a chair to the side, it made Lance relax a little...only a little.  
“What else do you humans do?” Lotor looked very intrigued, Lance could work with this.  
“We humans do many things,” Lance’s eyelids lowered and he purred “What do you want to learn?”  
Lotor looked taken aback “Why did your voice change?” he looked very disturbed  
Oh Lance was going to have SO much fun with this.  
“Enough!” Lance flinched, he forgot Hagger was there. “We must begin our trials again if we want to further improve the machine, we have limited time.” Lotor stood from his chair looking displeased, “Very well,” He sighed “I’ll leave him in your capable hands.” 

He left in silence, and once he was gone Haggers faace broke into a grin, she suddenly dug her nails into Lance’s arm and hefted him off of the ground, he grimaced “What the fu-”  
“You should well remember to hold your tongue, Lotor would be enraged that I broke something.” Lance gulped, he did not want to go through any of that bullshit again. He still got spasms when he thought on what happened.  
Hagger grinned when she shoved him into another room.   
There was a chair at the centre. He almost stopped walking until Hagger got sick and used her magic to lift him into the air, albeit painfully and deposit him into the chair and suddenly more cuffs buckled his arms into place.  
“Now...Let’s take a look inside your mind.” Lance’s eyes widened “No- no!”   
With no warning or preamble her eyes flashed and Lance’s whole body was pulled taught as his mind began to burn and pulse when he felt her probe her way into his mind.  
It was worse than what those Meld Mind machines were used for Voltron training.  
He thought desperatly of Blue, repeating the thought over and over again but he could feel Hagger slip past and dig in deeper, his resolve cracking.  
He had no control over his mind, except for the pain and he could hear her like a cooling calm to let him in, the pain would end…  
He was barely aware he was screaming in agony, drool running down his mouth and his whole body tensing and flinching with each pulse.  
“Give in,” Another voice, a druid? Where was Hagger? They were all circling around him a blur of purple and white masks it was making him dizzy and lose focus.  
“Slav, yes what has he told you…” He heard Hagger like she was very far away.  
Lance thought of Slav even the memory’s felt like water slipping through his fingers.  
“Does he know? That you know?” Lance shook his head, Blue. He had to think of Blue...When he found her, how she was so cool and let him in…  
“What are you hiding?” 

Lance looked up groggily, he couldn’t take much more, what did it matter that Hagger knew, they were never going to win anyway….where these even his thoughts?  
He couldn’t think much more, but he did not have to for in that moment, the doors exploded outwards.  
The Druids turned in alarm, and even Hagger screamed all vanishing at once, Lance frowned did he black out? A figure was in front of him.  
Shiro? No. The other one...Kuro.  
Kuro was closer than before and he had blood down his face...And Lance had a feeling it wasn’t his.  
Lance did not want to be alone with him, but Kuro was untying his hands and saving him, Lance felt groggy “K-Kuro?”   
The man paused looking up “Kuro?” He asked bemused. That snapped Lance awake, oh crap, was he going to take offense? He had no clue.  
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to call you that, it fitted at the time and well-” Kuro chuckled cutting him off “I’m not...opposed to it.” His golden eyes flickered upwards locking with Lances. “You can call me that in private.” He purred.  
Lance gulped, private. What the hell did he mean by Private- Lance would never be alone with Kuro if his life depended on it.  
His eyes suddenly flickered and he realised he was going to sleep, until a hard smack from Kuro jostled him awake.  
“Lance!” Lance shook his head as both mirrors of Shiro and Kuro warped together, he groaned shaking his head as it snapped back to focus to Kuro looking irritated.  
“Lance, you need to stay awake, everyones here. The Olkari, the Bulmarians, even the Endorians.” Lance grunted “I hate those fuckers.”   
“...You mean those froggits?” Kuro asked with an raised eyebrow, Lance growled “I meant what I said.”  
“You have to hold out a little longer, Blue’s here too.”  
Then he felt a rhythmic purring wash over his body like water, he took a shaky breath “Blue?” He croaked, and Kuro managed to untie the metal clasps that fell to the ground with a chunk.  
“Yeah, you have to get to her, and we need to take down Lotor and Hagger before they run away again.” Kuro looked a little deranged.   
Lance stood then frowned realising he was fine, which was odd feeling like he’d been tortured but standing with a spring in his step. It was jarring to say the least.  
But their little moment of peace was shattered as the whole room shuddered.  
“They found us!” Lotor he heard running down the halls like an angry bear, Kuro stepped in front of Lance.  
“Voltron- I do not know how-” Suddenly Hagger appeared in the doorway just as Lotor reached it, Kuro activated his arm as Hagger growled he orders to the Prince.  
“Don’t let them in here.” She screamed and focused her attention towards them.  
Lance smirked “Sucks to be you right now.” 

 

Allura along with the others seperated through the halls to look for Lance, she heard Shiro though the comms sounding a little breathless “Allura?”  
“Shiro! Did you find him?”  
“I got Lance,” She sighed with relief and heard what Shiro had to say next “We’re making our way to the lions.”  
“Oh thank-” She cried out when dark matter exploded into the wall on her right and then saw hagger emerge from the source of the dark matter.  
“You be best not to get lost here, Princess.”   
Allura scowled and braced herself materializing her staff. “Let’s pick up where we last left off, shall we?” Allura gave a cocky smirk “Or are you going to run away again?” Haggers laugh was cruel, Allura never let her eyes wander. Especially when it came to Hagger.  
The witch growled, raising her arms “You have delusions to think you can defeat me? You’ve had mere months to learn Altean Magic.” Her hands began to cackle her eyes glowing bright “While I have had centuries of experience!”  
“As one of my Paladins would say,” her eyes narrowed her lips curled into a grin.  
“Bring it on!”


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey so writers say if you get stuck writing something, change the point of view. Sorry it seems like a shock to have Kuros POV but I had no idea how to write this scene since it’s like the BIG scene but since lance was Out of Commision, theres not much his POV could give to the story details. Hope it wasn’t disorienting.

Fifteen Hours before Kuro rescued Lance, the team were having a meeting to figure out what the best plan of action was.  
It turned out that Allura and Pidge were able to track Lance through his Paladin armour. They seemed to have learned from last time, Kuro thought.  
He was sick of waiting, and he was sick of having to rely on other factions of the Rebellion to rely on, apparently the Bumerians and Olkairi were trusted in this world, enough so to be tasked with this meeting.  
He let the others talk away knowing the only input he has would be shoot first ask questions later and make the Galra realise what a grave mistake it was for taking one of theirs.  
Kuro glanced at the Red Paladin and again was stunned to see him pull such a venerable face, the boy looked lost and he was quite, unlike his Keith this one seemed to miss the Blue Paladin.  
It was very odd to say the least.  
Kuro found himself looking at the others, Slav was present and looked beyond worried, and the Blades of Mamoura looked calm and stoic but even though the looked calm Kuro could tell they were panicking. Missing a Paladin in a time of crisis, it was putting a damper on their plans, whatever they may be.

“Maybe if we had someone to distrat Lotor focus the time bubble onto him and then-”  
“You’re forgetting Hagger, so far Allura is the only match for her.” Hunk and Pidge argued and Allura intervined “Then leave Hagger to me-” Coran looked appalled at the very idea.  
“All alone- I think not. Besides she has those Druids at her beck and call you can’t fight all of them.”   
“Maybe not, I think I know a way of getting all the druids out of the way.” Kuro said, earning surprised looks from all of them.  
“Really? And that might be?” Kuro shrugged “Just leave it to me,” The measures he would use weren’t very humane so to speak, he’d rather this team didn’t know what he was going to be up to, but from past experiences on fighting druids he had to say he was pretty confident for defeating them.  
“But how do we even find Lance, once the time Bubble’s destroyed we might need Voltron the Galra fleet aren’t just going to sit there and watch us attack their leaders.” Hunk was being really pessimistic and it was taking all of Kuros patience not to snap at him.  
That was until Slav spoke “I have made a Jammer that will be able to disable all of the fighter drones ability of flight, they would either fall or float in space, if the rebels use that time to herd the galra ships away or maybe capture them I guarantee a success in this mission.”  
“You made a jammer? And what's so special about the planet?”  
Slav took a breath “It would improve our chances by a-”  
“Alright!” Kuro cut in, having more than enough of this “We get it,” 

Pidge continued on ignoring both “Alright so Shiro and Allura make it inside, it should be convert maybe catch Lotor by surprise and more numbers would be to our advantage.”   
Kuro noticed Keith place his hands on the table and took a deep breath “I think I have a plan.” Kuro glanced at the others, seeing as no one else said their objections he raised an eyebrow.  
“Well, let's hear it.” 

And back to the present, Kuro had to admit it wasn’t a bad, Lance was behind him shooting at every android or Galra that managed to intercept them, he never noticed how Lance never missed his shots.  
His Lance bragged about being a sharpshooter but he’d never payed attention to it before. Kuro grabbed his arm and dragged him into another hallway, Lance almost crashed into him when Kuro suddenly halted.  
Lance gasped as he saw a troupe of Galra soldiers Lance took a step back and aimed his bayard, but he needn't bother.  
Kuro activated his arm, giving an animalistic growl he prowled forward and tore through the Galra like they were paper.  
Lance only stood there, blinding. He barely had to lift a finger.

Kuro finished them off and then to turn to see Lance’s stunned expression, he smirked and took Lance’s hand again “This way.” That seemed wake Lance from his stupor, the boy called out from behind him.  
“Hey what is the plan, anyway? Are we running away or-”  
Kuro glanced back “Everyone agreed that if you needed medical attention we would postpone our attack, but since you’re okay we’re underway to continue with the plan.” He heard Lance grumble “You didn’t even ask…”  
“You look fine to me,” Kuro purred which only earned an eyeroll, Kuro chuckled it was too fun to tease the Blue Paladin, way too easy.  
“Seriously, are we running to our lions.”   
Kuro scoffed “Who said we’re running? Since we’re here we might as well cause some damage.” Lance gaped “No- Kuro we can’t just attack Hagger here-”  
Lance tried to keep up as they both ran past a hall Kuro glanced and saw Allura facing Hagger and was able to propel the witch into the wall, Hagger gave a youd scree and fell to the floor in a slum. Just barely managing to get up out the way of Allura. 

Kuro thought that Voltron here were so different, with no backbone and no ideal belief to keep all the planets they saved under their thumb they may have allies but most of them didn’t even fight with them!  
Kuro wouldn’t stand for that, if he was going to stay here he was going to make some changes. But seeing how they acted Keith with ruthless intent at Lotor, Allura ready to destroy Hagger...there were some hope left.  
“She seems to have it under control, come on the system won't stay down for long.” Kuro scowled “If only we knew what that device looked like we could figure out how to take them down.” Lance was suddenly quiet which spurred Kuro to glance behind, he noticed the boy was panting so he slowed down for a bit, Kuro was honestly surprised there wasn’t much Galra or sentries at this point.  
“It.s his bracelet. Lotor wears a bracelet on his arm that’s what he’s using.” Kuro stared then nodded, “Good then we have a target, but first we need to get you your bayard.” Lance frowned as if just realising “Is that where we’re going? I havn’t got a clue on where it could be.” 

Looking at the door ahead, Kuro pointed and his hand glowed purple illuminating the cruel smirk on his face “Luckily, I do.” 

 

While Kuro and Lance were inside the fortress, Pidge and Hunk with Kolivan in the yellow lion waiting outside, so far the Galra were fighting the rebels and Kuro said he found Lance and the mission was a go, but Lotor hadn’t used the time bubble on anybody yet, it made the lions wonder if they should attack yet, but no one gave the word.  
And so they waited.  
Hunk was tapping his leg “Okay, I know Shiro and Lance might be okay and Keith and Allura are in there too- the Galra could attack any minute.”  
“Calm young Paladin.” Kolivan said placing a hand on Hunks shoulder, which thank god because Pidge was getting sick of Hunk rambling, she was just as jittery as he was but since he kept panicking it was making her feel worse.  
“We wait,” Kolivan continued his voice soothing Pidge as well as Hunk “The Paladins will send out a signal if anything goes wrong just keep calm.” Kolivan glanced at the planet with a sad expression only Hunk saw.  
“What planet is that anyway?” He asked, he hoped no casualties were hurt, but the planet was barren, a wasteland with no sign of life.  
Kolivan merely raised an eyebrow as if Keith should know.

“It was our home planet, once. Or what’s left of it.” They heard Pidge gasp through the comms “Wait-what!?”   
“It was where the Black Lion was created, our planet was destroyed long ago, fitting how this is where it all-”  
“Don’t say it, the last time someone said it with Zarkon this happened. Please don’t jinx us.” Hunk groaned slumping in his chair, he looked worse than previous before.  
“That did not make me feel better.” He groaned, Kolivan looked lost, Pidge felt sorry for him.  
Until her attention was drawn somewhere else “Wait is that-WHoa!” She cried out dodging out the way, even Hunk looked up alarmed “Is that a fighter ship.” Kolivan braced himself from the sudden maneuvers.  
He heard Pidge growl “I thought Slav said it was permanent!” Hunk responded “Don’t trust Everything Slav says!”   
Only a few fighter ships were powering on, so Hunk and Pidge were going to be busy to take them out.  
They hoped Lotor didn’t use the time bubble now, Pidge pulled her lever back “We’re going to have our hands full.” She leaned forward “Shiro! You better hurry it up, man!”   
She heard him growl through the comms “In a tick Pidge! We’re looking for Lance’s baya- ah!”   
Pidge flinched “Ah-what? Shiro? Shiro!”   
Hunk felt like fainting “Oh that’s it. They’ve been captured.” He moaned slumping into his chair but then yelped and dodged sideways from a ship. Hunk smashed into it with a growl “Will you let me panic in peace!” He cried smashing another one, Kolivan watched in awe, it was strange to see the yellow Paladins berserker side. Humans were a very interesting species.

 

Kuro and Lance were now running through the halls back in the opposite direction away from the Galra, as soon as they lost them in the maze of a fortress Kuro saw and panel and skidded towards it and was able to cut out a perfect square, he noticed Lance stand beside him with his bayard held high and aiming for any threats, Kuro smirked amused, he was too adorable much more...expressive than his Lance.

“By the way, what are you doing?” Lance asked glancing at Kuro. “Keep your eyes on the halls.” Kuro quipped back, making Lance grumble.  
“It’s part of the plan, I need you to use those sharp shooting skills for this.” Kuro glanced up making sure Lance understood but was thrown off guard by the look he was recieving.  
Lance looked lost, honest surprise colouring his face.  
Kuro wondered why he looked that way, almost disbelieving and had to smirk, it was interesting to say the least. 

“Lotor has no clue that you’re here,” Lance looked confused but Kuro continued on knowing Lance’s need to rabble “Allura is going to be piloting the blue lion to throw them of the scent, while you remain out of sight and prepare to take Lotor down.”  
Lance blinked then took a physical step back “You mean kill him!?”   
Kuro felt the stirs or irritation that was one quality he didn’t miss, unlike this one his lance would obey orders.  
“What else?” He asked plainly obvious “You helped kill Zarkon, how is this any different?” But Lance still shook his head, Kuro took a deep breath and tried a different approach.  
“Hagger is still alive and look what she brought down upon us, if she had died with zarkon would we be here?”   
Kuro knew it was hard to persuade Lance, but he could damn well try.  
Kuro stood up sliding the Panel from the wall easily, “If we stop this tyranny at the roots, we may stop situation like this from happening again. Let Lotor live if you want,” He shrugged “But if you find yourself in this situation in the future and one of your precious Paladins die?” Kuro looked him in the eye “Then that’s on you.”   
Lance almost stopped breathing Kuro sighed “Once inside slot this panel back in place behind you, travel up the vents and find a high point, there’s a tracker on you so we know what to avoid so you don’t become part of collateral.” 

Kuro turned, he felt awkward as if he was supposed to say something then shook his head, he wouldn’t say anything in his universe why is this one so different.  
Kuro left him and ran down the halls making his way towards the loading deck to leave, he knew he had a limited time before he got to his lion.

“Hello Champion.” Kuro stopped and saw Lotor with his guards at the hall he scowled as Lotor took a few steps forward “Where’s your friend?” Kuro scowled his arm glowing purple, Lotor only looked amused like one would at a yapping dog.  
Kuro would gladly rip out his insides if he could, maybe Lance would be less of a headache.  
But before he could strike some guards appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him, Kuro barely had time to see them coming as they slammed him into the floor.  
What the hell?  
Until he looked up and saw Lotor in a different position his hand on his Bracelet.  
Kuro’s eyes narrowed “you cheater.” Lotor smirked “Did I say I wasn’t?” 

 

Lance watched as Kuro’s form disappeared around the corner and then slipped into the enclosed space and slipped the panel back behind him. He used the light from his bayard to navigate around the small space and almost walked into the metal ladders locked into place on the wall, deactivating his bayard and blindly reaching out he began to climb up the wall, thank god he wasn’t claustrophobic.

Activating his head set, Lance was suddenly able to hear panicked voices through the comms, he heard Hunk yell and responded “Hunk? Can you hear me?”  
There was a pause and suddenly he heard Hunks voice bellow in his ear “Lance! You’re alive!” Lance grimaced but chuckled “Yeah, I’m doing okay- what’s going on out there?” Pidge responded this time “We’re fighting some drones on the Galra Planet side.” Lance stopped climbing.  
“What? Galra planet...there’s a GALRA Planet!” Lance gasped as that was the only thing that he caught on.  
Hunk piped in “I know, I was shocked too,” Lance couldn’t believe it, and then continued climbing, “After today I doubt I could be shocked anymore-”  
“Ah! Oh come on ALL OF THEM were supposed to stay down!” Hunk cried out and Lance listened intently his heart skyrocketing “Well from now on let’s not completely rely on Slav’s machines!” Lance sighed. Slav, he should have known.  
“Seriously, the quicker you four get back the better.” Pidge grumbled, this made Lance pause, four? Shiro, Allura and him but who was the other...wait.  
“Where’s Keith?” Lance asked outloud, Hunk and Pidge heard “Isn’t he with you?”


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost...at the end...of this fight scene....argh!!! Sorry for the POV shifts, but if it was Lance's we would miss the whole thing since he basically hides away from the action in the rafters waiting for his shot. Everyone had a role to play...thanks for reading.

Keith had chased after Allura as soon as he’d gotten them both onto the ship, he managed to stop any stray Galra that got in the way his main focus for Allura to find Hagger. Allura made a compelling argument to take hagger on, but Keith still didn’t agree that she should take her on her own.  
Keith knew more than anybody that Allura was up to the task, but she had a horrible impulsive habit to to jump in headfirst into danger...it was like looking in a mirror.  
Keith knew Shiro would find Lance it was only a matter of time.

 

But Keiths job was to keep Allura safe, no one asked him of this but the he found himself doing it like second nature. Which was how he found them.  
Allura and Hagger fighting out in the open, he wondered if he should step in at all.  
Until Hagger managed to corner Allura did Keith move on instinct and was able to intercept, Hagger pulled back surprised and was almost hit by Allura.  
“I thought I told you to stay with your lion.” Allura scolded, Keith snickered “Sorry Princess, I wanted to have a slice at the witch too.” Keith demonstrated by swiping his blade at Hagger who ducked then teleported away, with a scream she slammed her hands onto the ground. Allura managed to dodge out the way but Keith screamed as he was hit with the full force.  
“Keith!” Allura yelled out, her hand outstretched as her Red paldin fell to the ground, his whole body charred. But only showed purple burns.  
Hagger froze “How is this possible?” All of Druid attacks leave the wound glowing white, regardless if you were human or Galra…  
Keith even looked confused, and glanced up “Beats me Lady,” He ran forward and Hagger leapt back, Allura took this chance and moved behind hagger gutting her in the back.  
Hagger yelped swiping at Keith, he flew across the floor then landed a couple feet away, then spun around grabbing Allura by throat her yellow eyes narrowed.  
“Finally, you have been such a thorn in my side, one good thing of Zarkons death. Is that he won’t stop me by doing this.” Hagger black energy wrapped around her arm then struck Allura like a serpent.  
Allura screamed in agony her legs thrashing, Hagger chuckled then gave a wet gasp, her chest propelled forward by a sudden force she looked down and saw a dagger sticking through her chest.  
She dropped Allura in shock and turned slowly to the Red Paladin a few feet across the room, his arm raised in the air from throwing the dagger.  
Hagger took a step back coughing up blood, until Allura grabbed her by the arm and spun her around, she pressed a thumb to the witches forward her eyes shining purple.  
“You will do no harm to no soul anymore!” She thundered in rage, Alfor, Shiro, Altea, Galra all of the people who suffered because of warped power of an inhuman witch who only took and took.  
Allura pushed all of her quintessence through to the third eye, Hagger grunted then went limp all of her energy evaporated like water and collapsed to the ground.  
Keith groaned and moved forward gripping his arm, he might have sparined it...he glanced at Allura and he had no clue how she was feeling.  
“Is she dead?” He asked, he wasn’t sure what answer he wanted until Allura spoke after a few moments “...No. But I took all of her power away, she’s harmless.” Keith nodded then frowned “But still…” Allura nodded “Yes, I don’t trust her to her own devices.” Protruding cuffs Allura cuffed Hagger and then picked up the witch.  
“We should get to your lion. This war is far from over.”   
Keith turned to a hallway and turned on his headset “Pidge, we need extraction-”  
“A little busy Keith!” Pidge screamed back and Keith grimaced as he heard explosion, Allura smiled “Would red respond?” Keith shrugged “I don’t know. One way to find out.”  
Allura and Keith maneuvered around the halls watching the sentries with bated breath, how Shiro did this was amazing…  
Allura hastened her steps, and then Hagger groaned, Allura balked and then two Galra running down the hall yelling about power boxes saw them. They looked stunned for a moment as did Keith and Allura until Keith broke the spell of silence as he yelled.  
“Run!” Allura and Keith ran in the other direction.

Allura looked around and saw a wall that had loads of wires sticking out and open power panels, grinning she aimed her hand and a shot of pure altean quintessence shot out and hit the power panel.  
It all exploded spectacularly, a huge gaping hole opened and wind suddenly pulled inwards from the outside, grabbing her arm Keith ran faster and the two of them leapt into the air and began to fall in a fast plummet towards the planet.  
Keith and Allura screamed, what if this was the one time that red didn’t come, with his heart beating in his chest Keith looked to Allura.  
Oh god if she died it would all be his fault.  
The planet was getting closer.  
“Come on Red!” he cried out, Allura outstretched a hand and held onto his closing her eyes, Keith did the same, bracing for impact.  
Whoom!”  
Keith blinked and saw Red coming towards them with her jaws open and caught them, just before they hit the ground.  
Keith cried out as both her and Allura tumbled into the mouth panel, Hagger rolling from underneath them with a grunt.  
Keith panted and placed a shaky hand on the wall of Reds mouth “Cutting it close there, huh?” He scowled, he heard Red give an amused rumble and had to shake his head.

Keith ran to the cockpit with Allura behind him “Guys!” He called sitting in his chair and pulled up the controls, “How’s it looking?” Pidge responded “Beside all the fighter jets powering back up? It’s looking pretty damn great!” She scowled, and Hunk yelled back “Now is NOT the time for your sarcastic comments Pidge, we need help Keith!”   
Keith pushed down his controls “I’m on my way, keep em busy until Shiro gets back then we could form Voltron, if needed.” Allura looked down at Keith proud, he’s grown so far she hoped that Shiro saw it...but recently it feels as if Shiro was still not here with them like he was still absent it was strange.  
“Allura you need to get to the blue lion.” Keith glanced back and Allura nodded “Got it, would you be okay with her?” She glanced at Hagger still unconscious and drooling on the floor.  
Keith smirked “I dare her to try anything.” Allura smiled then ran to the end of the lions mouth just as Keith neared the castle reds maw opened and Allura leapt out managing to maneuver herself to the Castle hangers and ran towards the Blue lion in wait.  
“We have work to do.” She placed a hand on Blues paw and smiled when they opened its mouth allowing her entry.

She swooped below and she was able to use the lions ice blast to freeze the garla in their fighter jets, the Rebels crowed towards her then moved on to the next fight. Allura never thought she could be this close to battle her father wouldn’t allow it. She felt focused and used all she can to be able to assist the rebels.  
“Hell yeah!” She heard Hunk laugh, gaining confidence as the fight seemed to be in their favour “We’re on their turf and we’re Winning!” then his laugh faded as they saw the main ship begin to glow purple.  
“On no…” Pidge spoke through her headset and the others tensed as a voice boomed over making the battle slow to a halt as they heard the voice speak.  
“Paladins of Voltron, this is Emperor Lotor, I give you one last chance to surrender.”   
Hunk scoffed “As if,”  
“For if you don’t one of your Paladins may suffer the consequence.”   
“Lance!” Keith gasped hoping that Lotor hadn’t captured him, Allura tried to remain calm “We need to get inside, once and for all.” Keith had to agree “Alright Princess, Hunk you stay here and stop any fighter jets making it to the ship, Pidge your with us, we may need your heat signature to find them, if it’s correct.”   
“Dude, am I ever wrong?” They scoffed and the three lions prowled towards the Castle.

 

Of course the Galra didn’t sit on their backsides waiting for Voltron to come to them “Activating power source.” Lotor grinned as he watched the three charge.  
“Now!” A sudden purple light pulsated from the ship and hit the three Lions, they skipped back a few paces and Hunk gaped to see Keith repeat his orders, but unlike them. He wasn’t hit.  
As the three progressed, Hunk slipped from under the ship and as the cannon powered up he took the full hit.  
“We’ll have none of that!” Hunk skipped back to his usual place, while the three who were already made it past to the ship looked back “Hunk! You okay!?”   
Hunk blinked “Um, yeah why?” Keith laughed and made his way to the ship, that gaping hole Allura made was becoming very useful.  
“Never mind, keep up the good work.”  
Hunk still confused only blinked “um, okay.” 

“Qiznack!” The Galra cursed as the three lions slipped in place, Lotor growled “What the hell happened!?” The Galran turned around gasping “Well- we don’t know, we can only stop them once inside but-”  
“Cease, what about the yellow lion, can you hit him again?” The Galra shook his head “Negative, we’ll hit one of our own.”   
Lotor scowled “Then tell your men to leave the planet, don’t fire until every last Galran is evacuated.”  
“But sir, the ships are down- no devices are flyable. Voltron may have done something to prohibit any technology working it may be dangerous to send them into flight.”   
Another Galra spoke “We can’t even get through to them.” Lotor rubbed the bridge of his nose, the others could see him losing composure and that was not helping their confidence.  
“The disruption won’t last long. Once the effects have worn out call them out.”   
Lotor left the room and briskly walked through the halls, Voltron shouldn’t be able to get in, he glanced at Shiro from the other side of the room in his acge glaring daggers, now that he had a good look at him he never remembered Shiro looking this...hard, he always looked soft and vulnerable but this time….  
“What are you looking at you bleached creep!?” Lotor blinked, he had to say that was new.  
Lotor glanced back at the walls, he knew he had the highest security that wouldn’t allow anyone entry and-  
CRASH- BANG!  
Lotor took a step back from the smoke and rubble that greeted him, and took a sharp breath.  
They...got in…  
Lotor turned as saw the three lions looking down at him and began to rip there ways inside like vengful demons.  
“Where is he!?” He heard the Red Paladin speak, but wait, why was the Black Lion here when it’s pilot was here at his feet.  
“He’s right here.” Lotor said calmly, taking a few calculating steps back, and then he heard the half breed speak.  
“Lance!?”   
Lotor eyes narrowed, why would they ask for the Blue Paladin when his lion was here.  
Who were the pilots before him?  
Realising that Voltron could switch pilots suddenly made sense, why they were able to form Voltron even when one of their numbers were missing…  
Lotor took another step back, if Lance was missing, where was he?

Glancing up, he saw a glint in the dark atop of a beam, his lips spread into a smile.  
There you are….he thought.

 

Kolivan who was in the yellow Paladin, was instructing his Blades on where to go, to the Galra unknowingly herding them right where he wanted them.

“Land,” He told the yellow Paladin with urgency “I need to speak with them.” Hunk frowned and glanced back. “Um are you sure about this?”   
Kolivan looked ahead “I know what I’m doing.”   
Most of the Galra were stunned that the Yellow lion had landed and spoke loudly halting everybody, cold.  
“STAND DOWN!” Such a booming voice would make anyone halt, if the other saw they had no idea that Hunk could even speak like that.  
Even the Rebels paused their mouths dropping to see Kolivan step out of the yellow Paladin.  
And like a grand reveal removed his helmet the Galra gasped to see he was a Galra just like him.  
“Brothers!” He began with a powerful commanding voice. “We are not your enemy, You have fought for too long, the Galra have died or had been destroyed under Zarkons rein! And now his so and that Witch treat you like sheep to slaughter! Join my Blade and we will free not only the many worlds corrupted, but ourselves!”   
Hunk worried that the army wouldn’t listen, it seemed that some of them had a hard exterior.   
But one of them stepped forward and raised his blade.  
“Aye! We have lost many and Zarkon said it made us stronger!”   
“They have lost their minds!”  
There were murmurings from sun that Hunk was able to overhear “I heard they are trying to bring Zarkon back,”  
“Scary,” The others murmured and looked sad “I lost my husband,” A male Galra sad Hunk had to admit that surprised him.  
“We trusted them!” Cries and outrage rang around the battle field, the rebels had no idea what was going on as the Galra directed their hate at the main fortress.  
Hunk fist pumped “Hell YEAH KOLIVAN!” The Galran glowed “Of course, let’s make haste.”   
Hunk with the Rebels and Galra before him turned to the fortress “Alright everyone! Let’s take Lotor down!” The Battle ships were confused and only hovered not sre which side to take, when they saw the Galra and Rebels run together in a one way file, not many Galra fought back, how could they fight against their brothers?  
And just like that ion cannons turned and the rebels and Galra yelled commands as the tides and suddenly turned in their favour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ding dong the witch is dead, aha just kidding. Hagger has lost all of her powers, Avatar style. And is now pretty much useless, well no- so just wondering should I redeem Hagger and make her into a nuetral guy, or keep her evil? You decide. I leave Haggers fate in your hands.


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay short Chapter I know, but after this arc that should be it, we're almost done....so, do you guys want some smutty scenes or keep it pure fluff?

The three Lions lowered to reveal Allura in Red, Keith in Black and even Lotor looked stunned to see Matt exit out of Blue. Lance hands clenched on his pistol, now was not the time to worry about that type of stuff. Lance growled then aimed, he shot at Lotor and knew his aim was true, it didn’t help that Lotor was a stinkin Cheater and time warped out the way. Lance cursed then yelped when a sword flew towards him and struck the raftor, Lance fell, screaming as he did so then used his thrusters to soften the blow to the ground.

“Lance- Are you okay?” Keith asked as he sided next to the Blue paladin, Lance grunted “Nice knowing I’m so easily replaced,” Lotor feinted to the side and then attacked keith head on, Lance’s eyes widened. Lotor was...really good with a sword. Even Keith realised, Allura had to step beside him and assist, Lance took moved back away from the battle and aimed his pistol, he teleported away again Lance panicked when he appeared next to Matt, but the boy was expecting it and swung his staff striking Lotor in the chest.

Lance snickered when Lotor fell back into the wall and was then ganged up against Allura, just as Lotor side stepped away Keith barreled into him and Lotor parred away. Lance found his eye following Lotor his finger on the trigger. He hesitated.  
There was no way he could kill Lotor, there’s been too much death. On BOTH sides, and he knew not all of the Galra were bad, or purposely being evil he knew there were always too sides to the story.

_“Think about it, Voltron was made by Altean a race that is supposedly peaceful made something that was the greatest WEAPON in all of the universe, if they strived for peace why did they create such a thing?”_

The words were haunting and Lance found his eyes on Allura, then the lions.

Were the Alteans as peaceful as they claimed? Lance didn’t know what to believe anymore, except for Allura. But he knew killing Lotor was not going to end this war, it might backfire, terribly. Suddenly he heard Hunk call through their headsets “Guys! You are not going to believe this!” Lance moved out the way as the fighting group grew closer, and so far Lotor might win.

“Now is not the time Hunk.” Lance said watching closely but Hunk persisted “But Lance- it’s the Galra, they’ve changed sides! Their fighting with us! Kolivan is leading them.” That stopped Lance short “What?” Matt was taken down, and Lance snapped back to the fight, then he saw Lotor slash at Keith his sword imbued with dark Altean magic, Keith cried out and fell backwards in a slash of light. Lance cried out “Keith!” Allura grappled with Lotor and was able to hold him down for a few seconds.  
  
“Lance- do it!” He heard Kuro growl behind the bars, Lance shook his head Kuro’s voice was like an insistent buzzing that wouldn’t go away. Lance took a breath and focused his aim focused on Lotor, he shot again but Lotor teleported away, suddenly behind him. Lance eye’s widened- where did he go, even the others looked wary. Until he felt a sudden breeze behind him-shit. He couldn’t move in time, as Lance turned around Lotor grabbed his gun and pushed him backwards and managed to point his own gun at his head. Lance tensed, even the others gasped.  
  
“Lance!” Lance could only stare into Lotor’s eyes feeling his own gun pulse against his temple, Lance narrowed his eyes and growled. He was not a damsel in distress dammit! That was Kuro’s job! “I am so sick,” Lance grabbed the gun and then thrusted his own temple against the pistol. “Of being harassed by you,” Lance eyes narrowed “Go ahead,” He snapped, pushing into the gun further. “Do it!” This made Lotor hesitate and even lean back, and seeing his chance, Lance thrusted his hand up and grabbed Lotor’s bracelet and managed to rip it away-Lotor lunged forward. “You’ll pay for that-urgh!”

He grunted as he fell dropping Lance’s bayard and clutched at his head, Keith was behind him panting, and he was looking mad as hell. Lance blinked “Keith- I had him.” But that made Keith look more upset “Not one word.” Activating cuffs from his thigh, he began to lock Lotor in place, Lance took a step back and picked up his bayard. “Well it distracted him, didn’t it?” he brushed off dust from his clothes and he noticed Allura helping Kuro out of his cage. Kuro stalked forward “What are we going to do with him?” He asked Allura, and Lance knew if she gave the word Lotor could end up dead. Lotor chuckled “What makes you think you could defeat me? My men will come here and outnumber you easily, we have strength in numbers.” Lance scowled down at him “Face it Lotor, all of your people have turned against you- you’re a prince of nothing!” Lotor eyes narrowed.  
“You know not of what you speak-”  
“Hunk told me, all of us. Kolivan managed to persuade your men to turn against you. It was pretty easy.” Lotor growled, and none of them saw him break the cuffs, until he lunged grabbing Keiths sword and they saw in horror how it grew in length and was aimed right at Lance. “Holy Quiz- Ah!” Lance tensed waiting for the impact only to open his eyes and see Lotor looked just as stunned as he, he coughed and blood poured down his throat. Lance glanced down and saw a purple hand sticking out of Lotor’s chest. The blood had splattered everywhere, Lance hardly felt it against his own face, and Kuro looked animalistic, his eyes golden in this warped light he looked almost like a galra.

Lotor’s body slumped to the floor, like a ragged doll. Lance couldn’t breathe, he keeled over and retched, tears mixing with blood and pike. Not a good mix. Kuro’s gaze turned to Lance just realising he may have overdone it. “Lance? Can you stand?” Lance eyes lazily dragged to Kuro then saw Allura and Keith's horrified faces at the body on the floor just a few feet away from him. “...You...killed him.”

Kuro’s eyes narrowed “He was Zarkons son, we couldn’t let him live.” Lance shook his head “We couldn’t- that wasn’t our choice.” Even Keith took a step forward “What the hell Shiro? We never agreed to this.” Kuro glared down at Keith “If we don’t stop it here, it’ll never stop-” “Who said it was up to you!” Keith stepped forward their chests just touching. “Lance?” The boy perked when he heard Hunk and Pidge through the comms “What’s going on?” Lance blinked “Oh um, Lotor’s down, I think...I think we’ve won…?” It felt very anti climatic, not much of a build up. Instead he heart Pidge whoop through the comms.

“Hell yes- man I need a break after this!” Hunk chimed in “I hear ya, I need a holiday, I’m beat.” It was relaxing to hear their voices compared to the argument breaking out in front of him. He stood up and wobbled a bit feeling dizzy, whoa- stood up too fast. “Okay!” He yelled at the others “It’s done, it’s happened. What I want to know is what is going to happen next.” He looked at Allura who blinked at the question. What were they going to do now?

“I see we need to form a peace treaty, with the Galra and see if peace can be acquired.” Kuro and Keith were still glaring at one another. “Is Matt okay?” Lance asked once he turned to see the boy still unconscious on the floor. “Just leave him, he’ll wake up soon.” That started another brittle argument.

“What is WITH you right now? Matt is your friend and yet you look like you don’t even care of him.” Lance pushed himself upwards, then paused as he felt the Bracelet in his hands, he almost forgot about it. Making up his mind he dropped it to the floor and then stepped on it, crushing the time Bubble beneath his feet.

“Alright break it up,” he clasped both of them on the shoulders, he almost swayed seeing double before everything snapped back into focus, Keith looked at him oddly “Lance?” He sounded odd too, and then Lance felt something sliding down his nose- a runny nose? He had no clue that a cold could happen, especially since he’s never been sick since he left earth in the blue lion. He wiped at his nose only to see blood come away. “Lance- you're bleeding.” he was what now? His head began to throb like the start of a bad migraine, he swayed “I...I think I’m going to faint.” Exhaustion hit him like a ton of bricks. He had no dreams once he closed his eyes….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well all those time loops had to have some con-sequence.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay no Smut, got it :D I’ll just make that chapter separate and optional so it won’t ruin the story so pure FLUFF IT IS!  
>  Also I'm not going to drag out Lance's problem with the nosebleeds and all that- I'm draggig out too much as it is, so that's going to be sorted in the next Chapter. And look! The little baby is sharing his problems YAY!

Lance woke up, and he was wide awake, he never felt so conscious, as is he was drowned in caffeine.  
Oh good lord of life, the bed was so soft, he rolled over and snuggled into the squishy warm mass- and it was breathing?  
Blue eyes snapped open and looked up to see who he was lying in bed with, he was cuddling with Shiro...maybe?  
The man lay there, and had one arm up, cradling his head, the man’s chest rose and fell his breath tickling Lance’s face, he looked so serene and peaceful, this was his Shiro...right?  
Slowly blinking he decided at this moment in time, he didn’t care. Laying back down, he closed his eyes, he was not tired but just laying there felt peaceful he didn’t want to disrupt this warm bubble right now.  
That worked for a total of five minutes.

His leg began to twitch. He thought it was nothing, but then it continued.  
It was really starting to feel uncomfortable, he shifted and then grimaced feeling raw pain strike his leg, it was worse than pins and needles.  
He slowly sat up, his breath becoming laboured, he swallowed when he realised it was the same leg that druid...removed.  
When he thought back on it, it flashed with clarity, the druid getting nearer then severing the limb, blood began to pool around his ankle, it was cut at the knee cap, his leg a few feet away and at first Lance didn’t feel anything- until white hot pain-  
Lotor’s death flickered before his eyes-

He was breathing heavily, he couldn’t touch his leg, it hurt too much “Oh god-” He gasped out his hands shaking, until he felt something wrap around his stomach, he tensed then forced himself to relax.  
“Lance? You okay?” Lance turned and swallowed “S-Shiro I’m sorry,” He gasped out his throat feeling constricted “I didn’t mean to wake you up…”  
“What’s wrong?” Shiro sounded calm, eerily calm.  
“It’s nothing-”   
“Lance,” the voice left no room for argument Lance let his head fall back to Shiro’s shoulder.  
Taking a watery breath, Lance hiccuped “It’s my leg, I mean...they did the time loops and the Druid sliced it-” He choked and tried to keep talking “It’s ridiculous, I mean, it’s fine- it’s not gone, and it’s still there but I can’t...it hurts and I don’t know why,”   
Shiro pulled Lance closer, and spoke softly “Lance, it’s okay,” Shiro began to massage his stomach, then he moved lower.  
“Breathe with me.” Lance blinked at the sudden change in Shiro’s voice, he sound husky and it grounded Lance just a little. He felt Shiro’s chest rise and fall behind him, and his hands move lower towards the leg that Lance was favouring.

“What are you-” Lance tensed knowing if Shiro touched it, he was going to scream.  
“Relax,” Shiro soothed “Everythings okay,” He started slow above the knee cap, and seeing no response except for laboured breathing from Lance he continued staying above and slowly moving his hands.  
Lance watched as Shiro’s metal hand and his pale one rub soothing circles and massage his leg, Lance’s eyes fluttered closed as Shiro’s hand kept rubbing his leg, he hadn’t notice Shiro move further down from the ankle up, only that it felt really nice and his leg began to untense.  
He released a shaky breath when the pain began to ebb “Thanks, it feels better...how=how did you learn to do this?” He asked and saw Shiro’s gaze flicker.  
“With my prosthetic, you have to learn a few things…”   
Lance flinched “Oh my god, I am so sorry,” Lance gasped out sitting up instantly, he was whining about a phantom pain, when Shiro had it WAY worse.  
Shiro leaned back “It’s fine, it wouldn’t of happened if I hadn’t let you and Keith go in alone to face Lotor.”  
“Um, what?”

Shiro frowned “Don’t you remember? When you were taken by Lotor.” Lance’s eyes widened, oh god.  
“Yeah I do remember…” he trailed off looking away, Shiro- no Kuro, probably had no idea why Lance was suddenly so drawn off.  
“Okay…? You should go get some food, we have no idea what the Galra had even done to you.” Lance stood up, the pain was gone but he knew in the future it was going to come back, glancing at Kuro he snickered.  
“Just being regular assholes, that’s all.” Kuro chuckled and it felt weird, making Kuro laugh.  
Until his chuckles died down and he looked at Lance seriously “Listen, Lance. When you were taken I...I couldn’t think straight,” This surprised Lance, why was Kuro saying this?  
“I wanted to hunt down every last Galra to find you.” Kuro smiled “You have to thank the Red Paladin for finding you so quickly.”  
Lance blinked “What?” Kuro stood and Lance almost toppled backwards trying to move away, but Kuro grabbed his shoulder keeping him still.  
Lance heartbeat skyrocketed, once so calm atmosphere, was no gone.  
“Lance, when you were gone. I realised something-”   
His breath was louder than usual, to think this guy was touching him up- and he let him!  
“When you disappeared I…”

Suddenly someone knocked on the door and it opened to reveal Matt and Keith “Hey! You’re up!” They looked relieved to see Lance up and standing, Lance chuckled when keith barreled into him hugging him tight, Lance squeezed back.  
“We should stop meeting like this.” damn has Keith’s hugs getting better?  
Was Hunk turning him into a cuddle monster?  
If so, don’t stop. Keith gave good cuddles, “I missed you.” Keith sighed and Lance felt touched, “I missed you too, Skywalker.”   
Keith leaned back completely confused “What?”  
“I’ll explain later.”   
Lance glanced back at Kuro “Well I’ll see you later, I guess?” Kuro nodded, not looking happy at all.

Once they left the room, Matt was accompanying him to the kitchen and he was oddly quiet, frowning he nudged the boys shoulder.  
“You doing okay?” Matt seemed to snap out of his thoughts “What? Oh yeah- I’m good...all’s fine.” Lance frowned not believing it for a moment.  
“It’s just...um you know when you were taken I thought Shiro was going to kill me.” Matt laughed, but Lance felt himself tense.  
Oh god.  
“Um, did- he uh, do anything?” Matt shook his head “No, just...is he okay? Shiro?” Matt began to scratch the back of his neck “I mean, he seems….different.”  
Lance’s nostrils flared “Oh, yeah he’s fine, just stressed nothing to worry about, nope.” He spoke really fast he wondered if Matt even understood what he just said.  
Matt frowned, well that answers it, Matt looked him in the eye and Lance could feel himself start to sweat “Tell me, Lance, is there something wrong with Shiro?”   
Lance has never lied so smooth to a person's face before, especially someone who resembled Pidge so well.  
“He’s okay, just stressed Matt. you should maybe steer clear though he’s still uh...handling things.” Lance placed a hand on Matts shoulder “Floating around in space isn’t fun, just wait he’ll be back to normal before you know it.” Lance held back a grimace at Matt’s crestfallen face.

Lance told Matt he’ll get to the kitchens in a sec, he had to check in with something. Matt surprisingly let him go.  
As soon as Lance left Matt he began to sprint towards Slav’s room. As soon as the door opened Slav turned surprised with a cup and saucer in hand.  
“Ah you’re awake-”  
“We have a problem!” Slav blinked “Um.” His eyes flickered “What is it?” Lance took a breath.  
“It’s Kuro. Matt’s starting to figure it out and if anyone tries to hurt him it’ll make it harder for us to switch him back-” Slav only frowned “Why don’t we tell the others? They could help.” Lance shook his head “No, it’s better if they don’t know, if they start acting differently and Kuro would notice. You said you had this figured out.”  
Slav placed his tea cup down and folded all six of his arms “I have no only being working on this Jammer, but also bringing back Shiro, and do I get any appreciation? NO I do so much and yet I never get any praise just an ‘you’r annoying Slav’ I’ve seen everyones looks, they get so infuriated and I am sick of it.” Slav poked Lance in the chest sharply making the boy wince.

“I had no idea leaving the Galra prison for another one.” Lance gaped “What? No Slav- you could leave any time you want!” Slav raised an eyebrow not looking impressed at all.  
“If I want to leave now?” Lance gaze wavered, then swallowed “Yeah, if you want to leave you can. There’s no Galra who can hurt you anymore...you can go home.” Lance shoulders sagged.

What can he do now? If he told Pidge or Coran he doubted they could come up with a solution in time. But he promised Shiro he could take him home!  
“No-no no- don’t cry- I won’t go I’ll help. But it’ll be the last thing I do you hear?” Slav sounded panicked and Lance frowned, crying?  
Lance blinked and felt tears pour down his eyes, Slav yelped “Fine I’ll definitely stay- you are my favourite.” He grumbled under his breath “Since you’re the only one who talks to me.” Lance wiped at his face.  
“Thank you Slav, if you want I’ll personally take you home, in the Blue Lion.” Slav smiled “I’d like that.” Slav patted his back.  
“All I need is something of Kuro’s to track. Once I have that, I’ll be able to see if I can bring Shiro back.” Lance nodded “Leave that to me.” 

 

Lance took a step outside, and had to hit the wall, all this guilt was killing him. How much of this could he keep a secret- and was it really helping them?  
He knew so much more than the others yet he gave nothing away he pushed it all onto Slav. He gritted his fist.  
He had to fix this…

He found his way down the halls and found himself lost, as he began to check the doors he froze to see a dungeon, a long wall of cells. And a figure was hunched on the inside.  
Lance treded in frowning and gasped to see the figure was Hagger.  
She looked up sharply and Lance halted instantly, her lips curled “Here to gloat?” Lance felt as if he couldn’t breathe but forced himself another step forward.  
“No. I just wanted to talk.” She raised an eyebrow, Lance hadn’t really wanted to talk he wanted to see who was in here he didn’t want to walk out awkwardly.  
She laughed as if a child was being foolish “Wanted to see your future?” It made Lance tense especially when she knew about it.  
“What are you talking about?” Future self, how in the heck did that made any sense?  
Hagger stepped closer and Lance braced himself, but she spoke softly, almost teasing.  
“Keeping secrets from your friends.” Lance tensed his eyes widened, his reaction made Haggers lips curl into a cruel smirk, Lance cursed himself for being too transparent.  
“It’s no fault of yours, like water you are adaptable free, transparent yes.”  
Damn he said that outloud.  
Hagger chuckled and took a step back allowing Lance to breathe “One day, you may end up like me,” Lance glared.  
“Lady, I am nothing like you, first off I’m not purple or a raging psychopath.” Hagger gave him a fond look.  
“Oh?” He did not like the sound of that, she continued on “You know who the previous Paladins were?” Lance crossed his arms.  
“I know Zarkon was the Black Paladin.” She nodded “At least you know that much? But what of the others…?” Now Lance faltered, she nodded in understanding  
“I thought so, Alfor was the yellow Paladin, I know it seems surprising but he had absolute faith in Zarkon and was able to lift all of us up.” She looked like she had a faraway look in her eye.  
Lance felt as if he was intruding on something “The red paladin was a galra, Antok, he was a wild brash thing always running head first not listening to a thing any of us said.” She sounded angry and Lance had to think of Keith.  
“I can relate.” That broke the spell and she looked up sharply, she swallowed and continued “An Altean was the green lion, a quiet thing rarely spoke to any of us, and yet her silence made it much more easier to talk to her, she opened up and we drew close like siblings.”

Just like him and Pidge, Lance thought “And I was the Blue Paladin.” Lance’s eyes widened.  
She smiled “You look surprised.” he now realised why she said looking at their future self.  
He shook his head “No way- NO WAY did you pilot blue!” He was surprised at how angry he sounded, that this person before him was a Paladin.  
She nodded “I sensed it, as soon as the Blue Lion had awoken from Earth and I saw you as her new rider. We shared a connection once...it’s weaker now.” She trailed off the first vulnerable expression on her face.  
“Blue was loyal, to Altea. As loyal was I, to Zarkon…” She looked at him her yellow eyes tinting in mirth “Maybe soon just like me, Blue may stop responding to you. She has choosen another has she not? This Matt...he does seem like a better candidate-”  
Lance slammed his hand onto the bars “Shut up!”  
He had no clue who was more surprised Hagger who took a step back, or Lance his eyes widened before stepping back slowly himself.  
She smiled “It appears we are not so different-”  
“We are.” Lance growled his whole body shaking with anger “There’s a reason I’m doing this!”  
She scoffed “I had my reasons too, I fought for my people and did all I could for the ones I loved. Only for them to leave...and at the end we’re all that’s left. Tell me how long would it take for your Paladins to leave you?”

Lance was still shaking, she was lying, just messing with his head. He blinked when he suddenly felt dizzy.  
“You should be careful dear,” She said and he looked up, her face showed no emotion “Lotor’s machine had a consequence of destroying things and yet no destruction occurred when he used it in the previous fight. It makes me wonder, was it channeled somewhere else.” She reached through the bars- since when was she so close.  
And she touched Lance’s chest, he grimaced and glanced down he had no clue what she was going on about until a droplet of blood fell to the floor.  
His nose was bleeding.  
He panicked “W-what do I do?” He cursed himself for asking that witch, as if she’ll help.  
Even she scoffed “Why should I help you? You took everything away from me.” Lance eyes narrowed “You hurt Shiro, and helped take away Altea, Allura’s father. I think we’re even.” Hagger laughed.  
“Fine, from one Paladin to another.” She let her arms fall.  
“Bond with the Blue Lion, I feel that what is wrong with you is not physical damage, but quintessence.” Lance frowned then saw Hagger sigh “I wish I could study it.”  
Lance frowned “If I told you, what was going on- information, would you return the favour.” Her eyes shone.  
“Yes, that does seem like a fair trade.” Lance nodded.   
“It’s a deal then.” 

 

Lance left the dungeon and began to walk aimlessly, finding himself in the hangers. His throat constricted when he saw Blue standing proud.  
He stepped forward, and he had no clue why, but he was afraid. What if she wouldn’t let him in.  
He plastered a smile on his face.  
“Hey Blue!” he placed a hand on her leg waiting for her to let him in. She did not respond.  
Lance felt his breathing waver “Blue? Please...please don’t do this-” Suddenly her mouth dropped and Lance tumbled back with a scream, panting then saw her eyes glow.

He scowled and stamped his foot “Don’t do that!” He talked forward up the ramp towards the cockpit “You scared me to death.” He only heard her annoying purring, he settled in his chair and sighed.  
“It was funny blue,” He said outloud “But I was really worried...especially with Matt.” More purrs Lance wished he was like Shiro, that he could bond with his lion but he just couldn’t focus, one minute was a minute too long in his book.  
He sat cross legged and closed his eyes.  
“Blue, everythings a mess,” He said outloud “With Kuro- Hagger...she was your first Paladin, wasn’t she?” Blue was quiet and Lance took a breath.   
“I need help, I just...don’t know who to turn to or even ask about this stuff…” Suddenly Blue stood up and Lance almost fell forward clutching the controls.  
“Blue!?” She began to prowl forward and Lance cried out as she leapt out of the hangers.  
“Blue? BLUE!”

Lance braced himself as he felt himself flying through space at unimaginable speeds, the stars whipped past and Lance looked around and laughed, until he saw visuals appear in front of his eyes.  
Allura and Coran stuck in a wormhole and he saw Coran getting younger as the space mice began to change only Allura wasn’t affected, Lance frowned that...was that what was happening to him?  
No, he wasn’t in a time loop...but there was a clue there, he looked and saw more visuals speed past like a montage of a moving film, mountains a vast terrain full of waterfalls and lakes, streams all connecting together and they sped past, and more planets appeared all changing in shape size and colour.

Lance could feel himself getting dizzy, until the images changed. To him.  
Multiple bodies of himself floating in space, his eyes widened at them all. They were asleep, some had different Paladin armour on, some wore his civilian clothing some a different species, but only three Black paladin lances floated together.  
Lance found himself moving closer to them and gasped to see they all had gaping holes in their chest, he thought back of Lotor his chest being pummeled by Shiro’s hand.  
Until one of the Paladins stirred, he had a prosthetic leg.   
His eyes were opening, and Lance had a sudden foreboding. Nobody here should be waking up- he shouldn’t be here either. Something told him that all these floating bodies were not to be aware of one another it wasn’t right.  
Soon the Black Paladins eyes locked onto his, and Lance saw with horror that it’s eye reflected cruelty it was the Mirror verse.  
Lance no idea how he knew, he just did.  
He pulled back and gasped as if he was suddenly surrounded by water.  
The Black Paladin flickered two images overlapping neither here nor there, Lance looked down and found his own hands looked blurry overlapping. 

Two places at once, making you nowhere at the same time.

Was that what Blue was trying to tell him, he cried out when the Black Paladin reached out trying to touch him, Lance pulled Blue back and realising the dangers she pulled back too.  
It was too fast and too sudden, Lance yelped and fell out of his chair.  
He popped up with a cry then frowned to see he was back in his hanger.  
“What...just happened?” Only an amused purr greeted him and Lance scowled at the ceiling “I am getting really tired of you making fun of me.” Lance glanced down, feeling his head was more full than before.  
But he knew one thing if he didn’t tell anyone he was going to burst.

Lance stood up and took a deep breath “Blue, I’m going to tell them, about this and Hagger, I’ll tell them everything I can.”   
Making up his mind he walked towards the kitchens, the others turned in shock “Lance! Where were you!?” Lance grimaced “Sorry I know I said I’ll be here but...there’s...something I have to tell you.” Allura blinked “What is it?”  
Lance took a breath and began to explain his day, from what Hagger said, his bonding with Blue and everything he saw.  
“And I don’t feel right- I mean I’m fine but these nosebleeds and my chest really hurts and I don’t know why.” The others looked just as lost as he felt, except for Coran.  
His expression was sad but hopeful “I think I know just how to fix this.”


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay it's going to be 17 days till Voltron Season 3. I have to finish this before then.  
> Oh my god kill me.

Lance blinked “Really? Just an hour in the cryo pod will fix me right up?” Coran crossed his arms “It’s not your body that’s damaged, it’s your quintessence that’s out of wak. Blue may have helped a little giving you a quintessential transfusion but the cryopod may help further improve your health.” Coran continued “It appears like Shiro you have exceeded your bond with the Blue Lion, but that’s put a strain on your mental and psychical health, you stretched yourself thin to get your bond to this development, and all of this time debacle made you worse it appears and is causing your body to shut down-”  
“Shut down!” Lance squeaked feeling his chest twinge in pain, he wasn’t going to die was he!? But Coran waved his hand in dismissal “Not to worry, the same thing happened to Allura when she was stuck in that Wormhole loop. An hour in the pod and plenty of rest you should be as right as rain. Guaranteed. Why if you left this until later who knows what would’ve happened.” he began to tug at his moustache and Lance swallowed.

“And if it doesn’t work?” Keith cracked his knuckles.  
“Then we’ll threaten the Froggits to give you all the quintessence you need.” Lance could only nod and follow along.

The others left, except Kuro he stayed behind with a permanent scowl on his face “If something was wrong why didn’t you say so?” Lance glanced back, just finishing shrugging out of his coat “I...did?” Kuro glared “You're hiding more from me, it’s obvious.” Kuro grabbed his arm.  
“Unlike my Lance I could read you like a book, and I know you’re hiding many things from us.” Lance’s eyes narrowed.  
“When I say I’m not hiding anything it means I’m not hiding anything,” He ripped away from Kuro and walked towards the cryo pod.  
“Can you go? I’m getting changed here.” Kuro scowled and moved back “I’m not done with you.”  
Just as Lance turned away he didn’t see Kuro’s face fall, then gathered himself back up and left the chamber.

Lance never liked the cryo pod, it was cold and it felt like a bad nap, but not dreaming and no switching between two planes were appreciated at least.  
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.  
Coran was the last friendly face he saw.

It was a slow couple of days, breaking out in fevers, then going back to normal, then getting a cold. His body was NOT happy with him right now, but like any illness it passed. He slept like no tommorow dreamless except for random flashes of Shiro- or Kuro he had no idea, but he didn’t sleep long enough to figure it out.  
As he was bedridden all the others visited him from time to time.

When Lance asked it was Pidge who told him that surprisingly that Lotor was still alive.  
“How in the quiznack is he still alive? K-Shiro impaled the dude!” Pidge nodded “I know, but the healing pods can do ANYTHING, he’s in critical health but he’ll live.” Lance felt a little relieved? He did not want this fight to end with more death, he leaned back in the bed and frowned.  
“It feels weird, just lying here, not needing Voltron.” Pidge nodded.  
“You can finally go home…” Lance raised an eyebrow “Huh? Just me?” Pidge looked up “I still need to find my dad, me and Matt are going to stay in space, Hunk said he might go back to the Mall and even Shiro said he’ll help Allura with the whole universe rehabilitation.” Lance tensed, Kuro was going to stay?  
“What about you? Are you going to go home?” Pidge kicked her feet up and Lance sighed “Honestly…? I don’t really know.”  
“Well, you don’t have to decide now, just rest.”

It turned out some situations with planets were messy, to the point that they still needed Voltron, some Galra had immigrated into planets most people wanted them gone while others had familys, their roots too far ingrained that it would be awful to rip families apart just because of their race.  
Lance along with Kolivan and Keith were sent as the group to be diplomatic, Lance had no clue why he was there until he saw that even though Keith and Kolivan were blunt and honest Lance easily slid in, seeing the offense on the aliens faces and was used as a buffer, he never realised how much good he was doing until Keith pointed it out.  
And Lance was sent on more missions like that.

He was kept plenty busy, he even had time to talk to Hagger, Allura advised against it but Lance felt a strange pull. Even she wondered why the boy wasted his time.  
He told her about his day, and that Lotor was alive, she showed no expression except for the tightening of her lips he never realised how well he could read her to know she was glad of the news.  
She even admitted that his illness was gone and plenty of bed rest would work but if he was exposed to any more situations that would be taxing on his quintessence he may not make it next time.

Lance saw first hand how hard it could be for the Galra, the space mall for example the Chef and Mall cop were utterly dejected, no one trusted their establishments because they were Galra, luckily Matt stood up for the Cheif stating that he helped fund the Gaia and other rebels by using beeezer a robot that sent data back and forth. It helped his business but the relationship with the Mall cop became strained. He ended up pitching a fit, Kuro wanted to take him in for being a public menace but Lance knew there was no helping certain galra that had strong opinions.

Allura was more nervous than before, she hoped that it would make Voltron look bad she even feared that she may be even worse than Zarkon, Lance told her that she wasn’t unlike Zarkon she showed mercy.  
They all agreed they would disband once all the planets were freed, Voltron were adamant that no rule would transpire, they were peacekeepers not dictators.

But not all was peacful, some Galra just like the mall cop began to band together and create their own rebelion.  
“Even though there not as much as a threat as Zarkon we must treat them as such, I do not want to be caught of guard.” Allura had said at the sight of such foes.  
But Lance could only feel a migraine coming on, this was just so messy way too messy, there was no such thing as black and white with politics like this.  
And he was never a fan of politics, it was all too confusing. 

After a while Lance worried about Shiro, he had no dreams as of yet, and he wondered why? He slept like usual but nothing happened…  
He couldn’t dwell on it as they had a mission as a group of Galra and even some other species that actually gained from being allied with the Galra, were now losing out on businesses.  
“Alright stay together and wait for them to strike first,” Keith was the first one to yell back “Shiro I don’t think so- it look’s like their charging up something they’ve been still for too long.”  
“I’m with Keith on this one.” Lance admitted even he wasn’t getting a good feeling on this.  
Even Pidge had to agree as they said they were getting weird readings from the ships.  
“I’m going in-”  
“Keith don’t you dare!” Kuro sounded mad.  
Keith barreled forward and attacked ships left and right “Lance! Get him back.” Lance frowned “Why me?” Kuro growled “He seems to listen to you.”  
Lance blinked, since when? He couldn’t recall but only watched as Keith was actually wrapping up the fight.  
“Nah, think he’s good.”  
“Are you disobeying a direct order from a senior officer?” Lance gulped, shit, he did not like the sound of that voice.  
“No?” too late, it was done and Kuro clenched the controls too hard that even lance heard the creaking through his headset.  
It won't be long before Kuro snaps as Keith and Lance were still not following his authority like everyone else was.

Once they made their way to the castle of Lions, Kuro wasn’t speaking, and Lance swallowed hoping to the Lion goddess that he wasn’t too mad.

Once they all got back to the castle, all the chatter washed over him like white noise. Hunk. Pidge and Keith were talking and laughing for their small victories.  
Lance even felt affected by their good mood, until he saw Kuro exit the Black Lion, and he didn’t look mad, Lance almost gave a sigh of relief. Until Kuro turned his way.  
Oh no, Kuro wasn’t mad. He was livid.

Kuro looked like an advancing storm cloud and Lance almost fell back when Kuro crowded over him looming over him with thunder in his eyes “It’s not like to disobey orders.” Lance flinched and held his hands up.  
“Look K-Shiro, I’m sorry okay,” His ramblings ceased when Kuro grabbed his chin roughly “Don’t make a habit out of it, Blue.”  
Lance swallowed when Kuro’s hand finally released his chin, but a stray finger slid over his lips. Lance frowned what was he doing- but Kuro’s face suddenly shifted and warmed, and for a moment he looked like Shiro. But only for a moment.  
He suddenly backed away and Lance flushed, he turned to see if any of the other Paladins saw that but they didn’t!

Later that night Lance walked towards the corridors, he heard a crashed and flinched before running towards the sound the door slid open and he realised the sound came from the kitchen.  
He froze to see it was Slav scowling down at a cup and tried to reach for it, his whole body bending and he almost wobbled.  
Lance moved swiftly and picked up the cup, “Oh Lance.” Slav sounded surprised to even find him here.  
“Did you want some food goo? You do in most 99.9 realities.”   
Lance chuckled “Sure, why not?” Lance helped himself a bowl while Slav poured the goo.  
It got to the point that Lance couldn’t even care about the taste it anymore.  
Both Slav and Lance sat at the table, Lance began to play with his food then glanced at Slav.  
“Hey you know Kuro? He’s acting really weird?” Slav tensed “Weird? As in he’s about to gut us in our sleep weird.”  
“What? No. no, he doesn’t know you know-”  
“And how do you know?”  
“Because I know!” Lance snapped almost breaking his spork, he sighed and continued “One moment he’s just an volatile angry thing and I feel like he’s about to kill me and then he does something else equally confusing and I just...don’t know how to react to that?”  
Slav hummed “I think you should maybe avoid him.”  
Lance groaned “How can I? I need something of his for you to bring Shiro back.” Slav blinked “Oh yes that, you should make haste before I even forget.” Lance looked up at the ceiling, figures.  
Slav patted his shoulder “It could be worse, you know.”  
Lance gave Slav a sour look “And how can it be worse?” Slav shrugged “You could be in an 80’s High School with Keith as your boyfriend.”  
“NO!!!”


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Check out that new Voltron trailer?  
> Guys I think there might be two more chapters and we're done. like whoa I thought I had like LLLOOOTTSSS of stuff to right but now currently I have four pages left of notes. Most chapters have been six pages long. We're almost done guys!

Lance had been sneaking around Kuro, all day.  
Get something of Kuro, Slav said, it’ll be easy. It would if Lance knew what the hell Kuro has on him that he could use!  
His hair? Great, how to get it without losing an arm...or a leg.

He had no clue how obvious he was until all of the team did their annual team gym workout, Keith and Kuro were on the mats, Lance watched worried in case Kuro went too hard on Keith and broke something.  
“You’ve been staring a while.” Lance glanced at Pidge who was only holding the weight in her hand instead of using it.  
“What?” Pidge gave him a blank look, “Dude, you’ve been completely spacing out on Keith over there.”   
Lance leaned away from her with a frown “Keith? What? No, no. I was staring at Shiro.”   
This earned a very chilling silence from Pidge, Lance did not see any harm in it until he realised what he said.  
His face flushed a bright red and he almost dropped his weight on his foot.  
“Not like that for crying out loud! I mean the dude's been in space- what if he y’know loses it, ptsd is a serious thing, Pidge.”   
Pidge shrugged “Well, I can’t do anything about that, if I could build a machine to turn it off, I would. But let's not change the obvious subject Lance.” Pidge’s grin turned malicious “How long have you liked Shiro? Hmm?”   
Lance placed down his weight in case he did any damage, to himself or Pidge.

“Listen I do not like Shi-”  
“He’s coming this way.”

Pidge did not miss the way Lance tensed or how his eyes flickered all over as if to look for an escape and before he could even move, Kuro clapped his hand on his back.  
“Hey Lance, come over here for a bit.”   
Lance gulped. Kuro was going to kill him, he saw Lance staring and now he was going to kill him using the training equipment and make it look like an accident like a final destination roller coaster.

Lance gulped and followed Kuro and saw he was leading him to the sparring mats. Lance halted and almost turned around “Y’know what I’m not really good at the whole Sparring thing so uh-”  
“Oh no, a Paladin needs to know how to defend themselves, especially against Galra that are going to be bigger and stronger than you.” Lance sighed “Yippie.”

“Alright, show me your form.” Lance glanced at Keith who made a go on gesture. Lance raised his fists and was instantly tense waiting for Kuro to make the first move.  
He didn’t expect the guy to sigh and straighten up, he took a hold of Lance’s arms and then began to maneuver his body “Whoa-hey!” Lance gasped his face flushing bright red.  
Kuro ignored it and re positioned Lance’s body, even Lance admitted he felt more in balance except he knew he couldn’t run and shoot like this.  
“Um, Shiro?” Kuro gestured ahead “Now imagine an opponent is in front of you, throw a punch.”

Lance looked at Kuro then ahead, bracing himself he gave a random swing. He heard Kuro grimace “No, your breathing- don’t hold your breath.” Lance glared at him then tried again, he felt Kuro stepping beside him.  
“Like this,” Kuro did a few swings and his breathing or his swings made a sharp swooshing sound that Lance found himself staring a little in awe.  
“See?”  
“Not really.” Kuro sighed but kept going “My foot movements, see? Be light on your feet and go back,” Kuro moved back “Then in,” Kuro straightened up.  
“It helps your reaction time, and helps with dodging since you’re already moving.”   
He glanced at Lance “Imagine who you’re going to hit and just go with it.”   
“Lotor.” Lance looked ahead and moved back into the stance Kuro showed him, Kuro laughed and Lance was honestly surprised, it wasn’t a fake laugh or stereotypically evil it caught Lance of guard.  
“Okay, now you seem to have the basics. Hit me.”  
That made Lance almost fall over “Whu-what?” Kuro smiled again but this time he showed teeth “I said hit me, Darling.” Lance bristled at the pet name “Oh okay.” He nodded and swung, Kuro ducked and just like that they parried, Lance was sweating like crazy while Kuro looked at ease.  
He hadn’t even thrown a punch yet, and yet when he swung Lance yelped waiting for the hit.  
Kuro booped his nose.  
Lance cried out almost falling backwards, he growled when he heard the others laughing at him.  
“Shut up!” He snapped feeling humiliated, but smiled when he noticed they were still going at it.   
He’d never seen them that happy before.

The team were beginning to do their cool down stretches as Pidge and Hunk walked away towards the showers Lance brushed his hand over his neck “Um, Kuro? Thanks. For that uh, demonstration.”   
“No problem,” Kuro placed his hands on his hips “I have plenty more ideas on what to do to your body for a strenuous workout.”  
Lance choked on his own spit, was that a threat? That sound like Kuro planned to stab him, or chase him like a scary movie troupe.  
Lance laughed nervously as Keith and the others were just around the corner, Kuro won’t do anything.  
At least Lance HOPED he wouldn’t.  
“Okay, Just don’t go overboard. I’m fragile.”  
“You? Fragile? As if.” Kuro teased and then brushed past Lance, the boy watched him go then relaxed once he was away.  
Shooot, he forgot to grab something of Kuros!   
“So-” Lance yelped then realising it’s Pidge scowled “Don’t do that.” Her cat like grin showed she was making no promises.  
“Were you and Shiro Flirting just now?”   
“Dude!?” Hunk gasped looking very alarmed “Is that why we don’t hang out anymore? I had no idea!”   
“Hunk!” Lance cried out trying to slap his hands over Hunks mouth.  
But Pidge placed a hand to her chin “Are you even sure that’s a good idea? Kuro being the Senior Officer and all.”   
“Pidge.” Lance said slowly “Don’t you dare make a joke about that.” 

 

Just as Lance was arguing with Hunk and Pidge, Keith almost walked into Matt who looked shocked “Oh hey Keith.”  
“Hey, Matt right?” Matt nodded then glanced at the others then back at him “Hey Keith, can we talk somewhere private?”  
Keith frowned and nodded “Sure.”  
Once they found somewhere secluded Keith wondered what Pidge’s older brother seemed so skitty about, once they were both sure they were away from everyone did Matt look comfortable enough to say what was troubling him.  
“Look, I know you won’t believe me but I think somethings wrong with Shiro.” Keith eyes widened but instead of yelling like Matt thought, Keith looked relieved?  
“Yeah...I had the same thoughts,” Keith glanced away “He’s been acting strange.” Matt gave a sigh then straightened up “Nobody knows, so we should tell everyone to steer clear until we find out what’s wrong.”  
Keith nodded “That would be the best course of action, but Lance...I heard Pidge and Hunk talk that he might be getting close to Shiro.” Matt shook his head.  
“Lance doesn’t know- we can’t tell him. I mean he looks pretty much smitten from what’ve I’ve seen.”  
Keith was surprised at the observations Matt gave and glanced down, he had no idea about his team mates if they were happy or sad, he wasn’t in a good place- still isn’t now he’s just got his bearings.  
“Sometimes I feel...like Shiro is still not here. I can’t...it’s like he doesn’t know me and I don’t feel as close as before.” Matt nodded “Truthfully I’m worried, not just for Shiro but for the whole team.” Keith crossed his arms.  
“We should keep this quiet, no need for panic. We’ll keep an eye out. Just in case.”


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay I might write a smut scene BUT it's going to be a seperate chapter, I'll upload it once this story is finished and it keeps this story plot oriented.

Keith never realised this was how he was going to get close with Matt, but theorists must stick together and try to answer the mysterious of the universe. He never would have thought such a mystery would be so close to him.  
Matt sat before him chewing on the end of a pencil a holopad in hand and lots of doodles and sketches scribbled out.  
Keith noticed a little alien sketched on the side, it was cute.

“Any news?” Matt asked disrupting Keith’s thoughts, he glanced down at his own pad “No. He’s acting normal…ish but the more I look at him the more I know that it’s not Shiro. How did I not notice it before?”  
Matt face shifted from dazed tiredness to sympathetic, he took Keith’s hand in his own.  
“We’ll figure this out Keith, and hopefully he’ll know where the real Shiro is.” Keith nodded. But it was hard to stay optimistic about this.

Lance was also being weird lately, he seemed more…aware of Shiro than before, Keith couldn’t admit it out loud but he swore he saw Lance took a sample of Shiro’s hair, he had no idea that Lance had creepy crush issues- it explains why he’s so obsessed with my mullet.  
Keith thought internally…

“Um Keith?” Keith was brought out of his inner monologue when Matt poked his face with his pen.  
“What- oh sorry,” Keith sighed brushing a hand through his hair “I’m worried about Lance, he’s too close to Shiro and he doesn’t even have a clue!” Matt nodded as if he was thinking the same thing.  
“Something is definitely up, the more I look at him the more alien he appears...uh no offense.” keith blinked, he had no idea he and Matt had the same wave length. He smiled “None taken.”  
“He’s dangerous,” Matt continued “But we need proof that he’s a psycho, or nobody’ll believe us.”  
“We’ll wait until he does something, or anything suspicious.” Keith decided, Matt sighed “Let’s hope it’s not too late by then.”

 

  
“So, Kuro.” Lance started feeling like he was playing with a shark. But if you wanted to play with them you had to wear stripes or spots.  
Technically the stripes for Lance was seeing if he could get on Kuro’s good side…  
“What is your home like? I mean besides the whole slavery and everything?”  
Kuro frowned as he glanced up from his objective, currently he was messing with his prosthetic for some reason Kuro had no qualms with tinkering with the thing.  
“We don’t enslave people,” He rolled his eyes as if he was offended “But Allura thought that all that saving, was amounting to nothing when other species raised war. She and Coran believed they should end it at the roots.”  
Lance raised an eyebrow and leaned against the Black lions paw “So, Slavery?” Kuro’s eyes narrowed and he glanced back down messing with the circuits in his arm.  
Lance glanced at the Black Lion and wondered why they hadn’t spat Kuro out and stomped on him…  
“I’m just wondering what brought on the whole evil Voltron thing.” Kuro looked at him sharply, while Lance rambled away.  
“I mean was earth any different? Was Iverson nice? Or you guys weren’t kidnapped by Galra?” Kuro stood up making Lance flinch.  
Kuro closed his panel. “You know, I looked into the data catalogues,”  
“The what now?” Kuro breathed through his nose “Every space officer or astronaut, is expected to make video logs of their days in space nearly everyone here has made one except you.” Lance frowned “Um, how was I supposed to? No one told me about it.”  
Kuro continued as if Lance hadn’t spoken “Regardless, I watched all of their videos, even my alternate self and it appears that all of the circumstances actually parallels my world. I’m not an evil doppelganger or some mirror verse. I am the same as your Shiro.”  
Lance blew air from his nose “As if, I know you’re lying.”  
“But I’m not, it seems that there are a few differences, I never lost my arm to the Galra and Pidge did not accompany me and Keith to retrieve the Red Lion.” Lance frowned “What so important about that?” Kuro looked too smug “Apparently everything. Everything has been mirrored perfectly we were on the same road to have the same outcomes until one crucial moment.  
Pidge.  
If she did not come with us on the Galra ship and persuade me to free the prisoners.” Kuro outstretched his hands wide.  
Lance’s mind was moving too fast to even think on what the implications meant but Kuro’s next words only cemented the fact.  
“You are looking at what could’ve been, the possible outcome of your precious Voltron. If Allura and Coran saw those prisoner’s dead at their hands the destruction THEY know they could have prevented especially after something so fresh of their destruction of Altea. The guilt merely had time to fester and harden them.” Kuro looked at his arm “Meaning that other mirror verse? Is so close to your own, makes you wonder what could happen to tip the scales to make your Shiro turn out like me.”  
That snapped Lance out of his “Shiro is NOTHING like you.” He growled and that surprised Kuro, only for a second “Oh is he not? I beg to differ.” Kuro glanced sideways to see Allura talking to Coran his gaze turned predatory “If Allura was capable to remove my arm for punishment, I wonder what type of push would turn her into a ruthless commander.”  
“Wait- the Galra didn’t do that to you?” that brought back his attention to see Lance looking at Kuro’s arm, he flexed said arm “No, they gave me loads of scars, unlike your Shiro I was stronger to survive better than he had.” Lance grit his teeth “Shiro isn’t weak.”  
“You say that as if he’s alive?” Lance growled and moved to get into Kuro’s face.  
“I know Shiro, and he is twice the man that you are.”  
“Shiro and I are the same. Two copies there’s nothing different between us, just like there’s no difference between my Lance and you.”  
“As if,” Kuro smirked “Don’t bet on it just yet, you two are a lot alike.”  
Lance never responded as Kuro walked away, towards the others, Lance scowled when he realised he didn’t learn anything. Shiro didn’t have too long…and speaking of Shiro. Lance looked over to blue and felt his chest tighten, he hasn’t dreamed of Shiro in a while. He wondered what was stopping him now…  
Lance was puzzling on this all day, he hadn’t even noticed that Keith and Matt paired off and were hanging out a lot more.  
He was too busy staring at Kuro like a puzzle (well he basically was) And it got to the point of frustration that he had a mad thought to steal the man’s Prosthetic and run away.  
He debunked such a plan, thank god, He would like to live thank you very much.  
Kuro was so aggravating how he just slivered his way around the team hiding in the grass like a snake, sure they thought he was weird but they all said he was still reeling from floating in space for a few days.  
But what Kuro said, about their alternate lives being no different, it was unsettling to know that they were so close, so close to being just as bad as Zarkon.  
And he had flashes of all those galra ships he helped destroy when they tried to form Voltron.  
It was defence, he knew logically, but in his heart, it didn’t sit well to know that Kuro was right. He was no different than Zarkon…  
It did not help that he spoke with Hagger a lot more, she always insulted his presence and clammed up, Lance felt like he was poking a bear.  
With persistence she began to open up, she spoke of the past, the origin of Voltron, how much it was like a family…  
“It starts like that, you treat each other like brothers or sisters. A family bond is used because it is the strongest, that closeness the POWER of knowing.” She spoke one day, while Lance sat cross legged listening with rapt attention like he would with his Abula.  
“Zarkon, counter to what you believe. Was a HERO. The Black Lion wouldn’t let him pilot her if she believed he was monstrous. He protected his people, he was very much like your Shiro.”  
Lance bristled “Listen Lady, my Shiro would never hurt ANYBODY.” She raised an eyebrow.  
“You follow him, you would bend over backwards for him, but what has he done for you?” Lance glared.  
“He saved me, Lady. Okay, he kinda failed but he tried his best.” Hagger looked too smug “I’m not faulting your naïve belief.” She looked away and for the first time Lance felt something change in their relationship.  
Something felt fragile in the air as she spoke.  
“I was the same for my leader, I used my abilities to save him and yet, he never listened to me.” Lance felt something stab his insides as he recalled times Shiro shrugged Lance away.  
For Keith.  
He tried to keep the bitter look of his face, but Hagger saw it.  
“You understand.” Lance frowned “So what if I did, I wouldn’t change that about myself even if the situations not ideal I would still follow him.”  
Hagger smiled as if she won and it made Lance wary.  
“Of course,” She said at last, and the next words she said were chilling.  
“Now you understand the reason for why I did the things I have done.”  
He knew the implications, and it hurt to his core to know that Hagger may have just been like him, idolized Zarkon followed him blindly saw him as a genius prodigy believed every word he said like religion, maybe even admit there were some things that he did wrong even if Zarkon went ahead Hagger would follow.  
And Lance knew that he was no different than Hagger, and now seeing the future before his eyes had never felt so true.  
He stood up on wobbly legs “I…I’ve got to go.” Hagger smiled as she watched him leave,  
“Goodbye Blue Paladin, I do enjoy our talks.”

 

He was getting vague ideas for getting Shiro back, so many scrapped. He needed something concrete but how can you make a plan based on an alternate universe? Something even Altean Science hasn’t figured out yet!  
He thought the whole situation was hopeless until Allura (Sweet Allura) gave him the best scenario to do it by blessing them with a mission.

 

“Those Rebels seem to be a bigger threat,” she was blowing it out of proportion “Pidge had found their hideout and if we plan this right we may be able to stop them before this rebel nonsense spreads.”  
Kuro opened his mouth but Lance and Keith beat him to it.  
“We should split up.” Keith said at once and Lance glanced his way “And corner them in? Just what I was thinking if we get to their main base it might make them realise how out of their league they are.” Keith nodded  
“Heads, arms and legs should go separately.” Keith said, he nodded at Allura implying both Kuro and she go together, Pidge and Keith, with Hunk and Lance all paired up.  
But if would have been more easier if he and Kuro went on a mission alone.  
“I should go with Lance.” Kuro said like a blessing and a curse.  
“Oh cool, adventures with Shiro!” Lance fist pumped, but Keith narrowed his eyes suspiciously “Why?”  
Lance cut in, not wanting them to persuade to separate them, not if Lance was going to do the thing later. He kind of needed Kuro to do the thing.  
“Allura, Keith and Pidge went on solo missions with him it’s mine and Hunks turn. Hunk after this.” Lance crossed his arms in matter of fact.  
“Aw why am I last?” Hunk moaned, Lance peeked an eye open, and thought in a panic.  
So you’re not left alone with Kuro I will not let that lie on my conscience if something happened to Hunk.  
“Because we save the best till last,” Hunk seemed to accept that and Allura sighed more than sick of this.  
“Fine, you two will go in positions until I say so. Is that understood?” Lance nodded and so did Kuro.  
“Yes, Princess.”

It went…well?  
When Allura said not to underestimate the rebels she was right, they had a few tricks up their sleeves and Keith was knocked out because he’s an impulsive idiot. He’s okay, thank god but there’s so much brain damage a kid could take.

And when Kuro took of his helmet and placed it down, he turned to Keith ready to give a scolding of a lifetime, Lance slyly peeked inside the black Helmet to see if he had any stray hairs.  
Nada.  
“Lance.” Oh god. Busted.  
“Can I talk to you, alone?” Lance could feel his insides turn to ice.  
Keith watched worriedly from the sidelines “Shiro I don’t think that-“  
“Keith don’t think I’ll get onto you for that stunt you pulled today.” Kuro glared making Keith wilt.  
Lance felt his heart skyrocket once Kuro had him alone in the corridors.  
“I know what you’re doing,”  
“Oh?”  
“You can’t fool me,”  
This was it Shiro was going to kill him, he braced himself and then Kuro moved forward,  
Lance tensed  
Then waited, and waited.  
When he opened his eyes it was to Kuros warm smirk then Shiro leaned forward crouching a little to Lances height and kissed him.  
Lance mind switched off.  
Mostly too stunned to process that Kuro was kissing him.  
Why?  
The man leaned back then guffawed at Lance’s expression.  
“Don’t look so surprised, Darling. I was so done with waiting I thought you would act first as usual.”  
Lance frowned “Wait, all those times you..,,that was…” Lance covered his face with his hands.  
“But why?”  
“Why what?”  
Lance scowled, Kuro was milking this out on purpose, Lance stabbed his chest with his finger.  
“Don’t even lie to me you could have had Allura or Keith! What makes me so speical,”  
Now Kuro’s smile dropped “You’re serious aren’t you?” Lance didn’t say anything until Kuro took his hand.  
“I adore you.” Lance blinked “what?” Lance tensed “Wait- you? WOU like me? You’re not going to…be that over bearing possessive boyfriend type huh?” Kuro shook his head “Possessive, maybe but not overbearing.” Lance raised an eyebrow.  
Kuro tilted his head “I like you, might even verge on love. It might be darker than what you would expect, but that doesn’t make it evil.” Lance crossed his arms, more to protect himself than anything else.  
“Countless video games disagree.” Kuro was not letting that blow the wind out of his sails.  
“Here’s a thought, history looks at men, good men who have a past of being abusive or even cheat their partners. Just because you see me as the bad guy and your assumption is not incorrect, doesn’t mean I’ll treat you as such.” Kuro reached out his prosthetic gripping Lance’s chin softly “I’ll want to mark you and make you mine, I have never acted because the Lance I knew would slit my throat in my sleep.”  
“Dude!”  
“It’s all in good fun,”  
“Stop, stop it just stop talking.”  
Lance pushed him off and fell back from him, he felt way too crowded and with Kuro standing there Lance couldn’t even think straight.  
“But you have your Lance!”  
“And I have you, it doesn’t matter to me, your still the same, a sharp mind, a boisterous personality, sadistic-”  
“I am NOTHING like your Lance!”  
“Oh really? Then why didn’t you help Keith? He needed you, falling apart and yet you degraded him, twisted the knife so to say let him fall into the abyss you never helped him because you wanted to see him fail.”  
“That’s-” lance trailed off “Thats not….true.”   
He, he did do that, but it wasn’t his fault Keith he….  
Lance couldn’t speak, and Kuro smirked, he pulled lance into a hug, it was warm.  
“It’s okay, you don’t mean to do these things,” his words sounded comforting that Lance easily felt his guard drop.

For a moment he could forget…he closed his eyes and breathed steadily.  
He even smelled like Shiro- wait.  
Lance pushed him away “I…I need a moment.” He practically ran away from Kuro ignoring his yell’s.  
Lance crashed into his room and clambered into bed clumsily. He had to sleep. He needed to see Shiro.  
HIS SHIRO! Lance shut his eyes tight and willed himself to sleep.  
One moment he was trying to blank his mind and the next.

 

He was standing upright in a corridor.  
Kuro was walking towards him…no not Kuro. Shiro!  
Lance wasted no time in grabbing his arm and pulling him into another room, then grimaced as he put weight on his foot. It still freaking hurt!  
“Lance!?” Shiro sounded angry even raised his fist for a fight, Lance cried out “it’s me- it’s just me.” Shiro looked stunned “You’re here- you’re back!” Lance shrugged “Well it doesn’t take much to-“  
Shiro suddenly wrapped him in a hug “I was worried there.” Lance relaxed, now this was a hug. Lance hugged him back, just like this.  
Please just never let this moment end…  
But Shiro had to pull away, god dammit.  
“So what’s happened since I was gone.” Shiro shook his head “you shot Slav, Lotor is about to be executed, same old same old.” Lance couldn’t comprehend how twisted this place was.  
Until he glanced at his leg, oh…oh it was gone for real. He forgot about that in this universe.  
“I almost forgot about this…hey why didn’t I see you before? I had no dreams whatsoever.” Shiro looked just as puzzled as he felt “I’m not sure of that either, I waited but the Lance here seemed really…tense, he’s not looking that good either dark circles under his eyes, the team think he’s plotting something.”  
“Plotting what exactly?” Shiro frowned and began to pace “I don’t know, but if they catch him doing something suspicious they might kill him.” Lance scoffed as if Voltron would…actually they might.  
Which meant that Lance was running out of time.  
“Shiro. We’re getting you home.” His eyes turned to steel “Tommorow I promise. Slav has everything ready, and if not, then we’re running away, in this universe, you and me. We’ll take the lions away and stop Voltron so that it can’t hurt anyone anymore.”  
“But the reality it might affect us,” Shiro tried to dissuade him.  
“Can it fuck, I don’t give a crap about realities, you’re not staying here alone anymore.” Lance moved forward too quick for Shiro to do anything and Lance kissed him.  
This felt right, just him and Shiro…  
Lance leaned back his arms still secured around Shiro feeling motivated to take over the world right now.  
“I’m bringing you home. And that’s final.”


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story is finally FINISHED, I admit this is not one of my better works I feel like I could've written the characters alot better, I did plan to drag the confession out but I kind of hate drama dragging in ficlets so I kept the whole confession abrupt.  
> Also not EVERYTHING will be tied up, and I realise the ending isn't that great but I do want to leave it all open and left to your imagination and hear you're own theories on this.

Lance finally had the time to think of a plan.  
He even had a few moments to himself to figure out his feelings, lying on the bed next to Shiro and seeing and seeing the man trying to sleep in this warped world. Lance hand reached out and he brushed his hand through white locks, Shiro exhaled and seemed to sink further into sleep.  
His love for Shiro were real, the only thing that made sense in all of this mess.   
Lance pulled back his hand his smile falling, but he had feelings for Kuro too...and he had no clue if they were bad or good.  
Kuro was...Lance shut his eyes feeling drained, Kuro and Shiro weren’t the same, regardless of what Kuro said before.   
He knew Shiro would save his team, he would even save the Galra themselves, and Lance wanted to pay that all back.  
And at first he did not expect anything in return just making sure Shiro came home would be enough.

Making up his mind, Lance stood up and left Shiro alone in his room, as he walked towards his own room and stopped to see Keith stand there, glaring daggers in his direction.  
“What were you doing in Shiro’s room?” Lance took a breath “None of your business.”   
Keiths eyes narrowed and he moved from the wall, before he could even speak Lance closed his eyes and found and re awoke lying in his bed.  
He felt a little bad for the other Lance who was about to be beat up for no reason.  
He gave a huff, typical that he had control of this now at the most stupidest times.

He ripped off his blanket and shrugged on his jacket making his way to Slavs room, as soon as the door opened Lance burst in “Slav! It’s tonight. I’m going to get Kuro and you’re going to bring back Shiro, got all that?”   
“O-Of course.” Slav said wondering what brought this on as Lance turned around he called back “Ah- you’re going to have to subdue him though!”  
Lance already his his bayard in hand “Already on it.”

On his way to Kuro’s room, Keith was leaning against the wall, Lance tensed for a confusing moment forgetting which universe this Keith was from, he had the look down.  
“Hey Keith!” the boy looked suspicious as if he caught Lance in a middle of a weird act.  
“Lance, I know we haven't spoken in a while. But we need to talk.”  
Shit.  
“Talk? About what?”  
Keith pushed himself of the wall “Listen I know it’s none of my business, but the matter with you and Shiro, I’m just saying it’s not a good idea to be so close to him.” Lance could feel his heartbeat rising steady towards a heart attack.  
“He’s not his usual self lately,”  
“He’s going to be fine Keith.” Lance cut in already knowing what he was going to say “I think some friendly interaction would be good for him.”   
“Lance you’re not listening-”   
Lance brought up his hand and flapped his four fingers with his thumb making a abrupt noise in his throat “ah, ah ah. No. Shiro and I are, very happy together.” Lance took a step back giving keith a look to stop him from following Lance.  
“Lance wait-”  
Lance took another step back “Very happy.” he kept his arm out to keep Keith from moving forward.  
Keith only watched as Lance moved around the corner around the he clenched his fists, he had to get Matt they couldn’t let this go on.

 

This could work. If he could Kuro that is...Lance walked through all the halls and tried to see if the doppelganger was lurking around. Lance tried the gym, nada.  
He tried the kitchen, the lounge, the pool, Lance tried everywhere and yet he couldn’t find a trace of Kuro.  
“Argh give me a break, the ONE time I’m looking for him.” Lance pouted then began to walk towards the astrodeck the last place he expected to find Kuro but at this point he was willing to try anything.

As he neared the astrodeck he recalled many memories from here, neither bad nor good, he talked to Coran here and was vented his feelings but then there was the explosion and he almost died, so yeah. Weird feelings.  
Just as he passed he stopped walking to see Kuro looking up at the holographic stars the blue hue light flickering across his face, the triangle holograms were flashing and changing shape around him and yet he was the constant. 

Lance blinked to see Kuro look at the screens with such a vulnerable expression, Lance almost thought of coming back later.  
Lance turned around and stiffened when he heard Kuro speak.  
“I know you’re there Lance.”   
The boy sighed and turned around walking back towards Kuro, Lance kept his distance and stood near his side just out of reach.  
Lance glanced upwards then his gaze flickered over to Kuro “See fancied some star gazing?” Kuro nodded and his hand hovered the panel and Lance saw Kuro navigate through the Solar Systems before his eyes.  
“It’s comforting to know that no matter what world I’m in, nothing has changed.” Lance raised an eyebrow, if he uttered another world about all being evil together again he was going to vomit.

Kuro looked at the stars wistfully “There’s so many things alike in both worlds it’s almost bizarre, how something so little changed the course in time. But I know,” He reached out stroking his prosthetic hand over Lance’s cheek ignoring when the boy flinched.  
“That you are a constant. Regardless of which world I’m in.” His expression was so soft and his gaze pierced Lance’s so much that felt as if he lost his footing.  
“What?”   
“I’ve watched you, I heard stories from the others. It appears you are just as ruthless as I am. Lying to your friends, speaking with Hagger, even fighting against Keith in loyalty to me.”  
Lance’s thought train screeched to a halt.  
He slapped Kuro’s hand away “When are you going to get it into your thick head!” Lance yelled then pointed a thumb at his chest “I am ME.” He took a step back gesturing wildly “NOBODY else, I am nothing like YOUR Lance I mean sure- I made some mistakes, I regret how I handled some things, especially with Keith I should’ve been a better friend, I should’ve been there for my team but instead I lied to them. But I doing better now.”  
Kuro raised an eyebrow “Oh really? Have you told them about me? About us?”  
Lance clenched his jaw and Kuro’s smirk was beyond infuriating as his silence said enough.  
“Thought so,” he said his voice sounding smug “We’re not so different.” Kuro advanced forward and Lance took everything he had not to cower but instead straightened up meeting his gaze head on.  
“With you at me side, we can change this world with Voltron as it’s successor we can finally stomp out any Galra from the start. Stop the wars before they begin.”   
Kuro was insane, and before he could even protest or even begin to call Kuro all colours of crazy Kuro closed the distance holding Lance’s chin and kissing him on the mouth.

Lance couldn’t even begin to think straight to push Kuro away, he felt Kuro smirk against his lips “Think of it this way,” Kuro spoke “This is the only way you can have him, trust me. I’m better than Shiro, with me you can be happy.” Kuro smiled, something even Shiro had rarely shown.  
Lance looked away “I…” He felt his lips tugging downward “I know. But I won’t lie. Not about this.”   
He activated his bayard and pointed it at Kuros chest who looked stunned for a second “Lance-”  
BANG!

Kuro slumped to the floor and Lance fell beside him not long after gasping, it was done. He had to take him to Slav now. What better way to give something of Kuro’s to Slav, than Kuro himself.  
Trying to control his breath he stood on wobbly legs then reached down to pick up Kuro, he tried with all his might to carry him on his shoulders through the halls.  
Kuro was way too heavy, Lance began to feel panic, it was a matter of time before Kuro woke up.

He almost tumbled tripping over the ground of all things, he was so close to Slav for crying out loud!  
Until the weight suddenly lightened, Lance turned surprised to see Keith on his left holding Shiro’s arm around his shoulder and Matt behind them holding the rest of him.  
“Guys?” They didn’t say a word, the three moved towards a room and once the doors opened to reveal the Med Bay, Lance saw Slav turned around all of the equipment already set up.  
They helped hook Kuro to the Cryo Pod and the door slid shut sealing him inside.   
Seeing Slav flit back and forth was not helping Lance at all if anything it was making him feel more skitty, and he could feel Keith glaring holes into his back.

Lance took a breath, it was time to face the music.  
“So...How long did you guys know?” he asked he saw Keith and Matt glance at one another then Keith answered “A while ago, you?”   
Lance felt his gaze flicker over to Kuro and grimaced “Long enough to give him a nickname.” Apparently that was far longer in Keith's book than Lance realised.  
He turned back and flinched back to see Keith physically LUNGE for him, Keith was only held back by Matt who looked just as stunned as Lance felt, but Matt turned his gaze towards him and he knew Matt wasn’t as pleased either.  
“You knew this whole time!?” Keith yelled and before he could scream further they all heard footsteps getting louder running towards their room and the doors swooshed open to reveal Pidge and Hunk tangled in wires.  
“What’s going on?” Pidge asked looking very alarmed at the scene, Shiro, to her anyway, in a Cryopod with Matt holding Keith back away from Lance.  
Keith growled “Ask him.” Now all eyes turned to the blue Paladin that cowered a little.

“Okay so uh, you know when we found Shiro? Turns out that was not Shiro it was his evil doppleganger like a bad Star Trek troupe gone wrong, and I never said anything about it because I doubted you guys would believe me.” Lance grimaced waiting for them to start yelling.  
Instead Pidge and Hunk turned to one another.  
“We know.”  
“Look I’m sorry for- hold up. You know?” Even Matt let go of keith in shock who tumbled forward.  
Hunk walked over to Lance dragging Pidge along the way still tangled in wires with him.  
“Bro, we knew for a long time. Which is what we were supposed to be.” He gestured at the wires making Pidge fall over, he cried out “Dude, I am so sorry, well anyway we were in the middle of making something that could subdue him but well, I guess you guys...already...got that covered.”

Lance wanted to be mad, but really he felt more relieved at least he won’t get as much schtick for not telling the others anything.  
Until he saw Pidge, now untangled, looking at him “When did you guys figure it out anyway?”

Well so much for that.

“Matt and I knew something was wrong a while ago, Shiro wasn’t acting himself.” Keith explained Pidge seemed to accept this and looked at Lance.  
He was thinking of saying the same but he had decided to tell the truth, he was not going to prove Kuro right.  
“I knew since the start.” Pidge looked rightfully enraged “You-”  
Lance cut her off though, “Well don’t blame me! I had a good reason, that none of you would believe me.” 

Slav chirped in “Now would be a good time to tell them about the dreams.”   
Lance gave Slav a betrayed look, he admitted to being honest but he was thinking more of baby steps.  
“What dreams?” Oh Keith look gave Lance no room for argument.

Lance took a deep breath then began to explain the dreams he began to have months ago, the more he explained the more Keiths eyesbrows drew furhter to the point where he was squinting at Lance his nostrils flaring, he barely even finished before Keith exploded.  
“You knew Shiro was ALIVE and you never even told us!?”   
Lance snapped back “How could I? I know you guys wouldn’t have believed me, Keith you had problems with the Black Lion and leading this team, and Pidge you were losing your mind over your family AND Shiro and everyone else was falling apart why would I ADD on to that?” 

Pidge stepped forward “Lance, I think Keith is more angry that you faced this alone.”  
“Don’t put words in my mouth Pidge.” Keith grouched but she ignored him “Keith,” She said again without looking at the boy in question “Is just upset that you couldn’t trust us with this. I thought we were a team Lance.”   
That struck him, as he saw all there disappointing faces his shoulders fell, he screwed up again he was supposed to be the leg of Voltron to raise them up not bring them down.  
Angry hot tears pricked his eyes.  
He took a breath then another “You know, this. This was why I couldn’t tell you guys.” Pidge took a step back eyes wide “I’ve screwed things up- I’m sorry and I get it. But your reactions are proof enough that me hiding this was a good thing!”  
Before Hunk could add anything to that Keith spoke over him “You’re completely crazy to think-”  
“Shh!” Slav interrupted “He’s waking up.” He gestured to Shiro and the other’s ceased their arguing instantly.  
The doors popped open and cool air escaped before evaporating, Shiro eyes slowly opened and the others waited with bated breath, Lance was tensing hoping to god it wasn’t Kuro ready to slice him up with his prosthetic.  
“Shiro?” Keith asked uncertainly his voice a little wobbly compared to usual. Shiro’s looked up properly and Lance almost sighed with relief, his eyes looked okay.  
It was him, it was Shiro.  
Even Slav confirmed with a nod, and Shiro frowned uncertain “Keith?”   
Lance took a step back and watched as Keith ran forward instantly latched onto Shiro in vice like hug. Even the others crowded further as they realised this was Shiro.  
Pidge even looked at Lance for confirmation and he nodded, Shiro’s eyes never held the malicious intent that Kuro’s had, he looked lost, and even a little scared that he may still be in the same universe.  
Shiro locked eyes with him and Lance felt frozen, he forced a smile and pushed the words out of his chest.  
“Shiro, you’re back. Just like I promised.” That seemed to cement it for Shiro as he looked relieved his shoulders sagged like a large weight was taken from him.  
Keith had to grab him “Shiro!”  
“I’m okay,” Shiro waved Keith off “I’m just tired.” Lance took another step back “You guys should take him to his room, let him rest.” Keith frowned “What do you mean we? Aren’t you going to help us?” Lance took another step back.  
“Me? Nah after these past few months...I bet he’s sick of me.” Lance lips wobbled and he left the room before anyone could utter a word.

 

The next few days passed by in a blur, Shiro was bed ridden, as Slav transferred his mind from one dimension to another he had to have constant surveillance to make sure nothing would go wrong. Slav and Allura kept a steady stream of quintessence used to keep Shiro secure, but mostly he was fine, slept a lot but overall he was healthy.  
Physically at least.  
Mentally he wasn’t so good.   
He awoke in the middle of the night almost attacking Keith at one point, Lance was lucky he was walking past to overhear the commotion, he ran in and was able to calm Shiro down, in his state he always asked for Lance to be there, to help prove this was real.  
Then the next morning as he awoke he was confused on why Lance was half falling asleep in his room, not recalling what he did the night before.   
Once Lance explained Shiro nodded then asked Lance to leave to get Keith. The Blue Paladin was hurt by this, he couldn’t exactly call Shiro out on it. But he knew he couldn’t but being used to help Shiro with the night terrors then booted out really tugged at his core.

At times like those he wondered if he made the right choice then scowled berating himself for thinking of such a thing.  
He was too busy brooding and thinking of how to tell Shiro to quit using him like that, he bumped into Pidge.  
“Oh, hey Pidge- what are you doing out here?” She glared “I could say the same thing.” Lance blinked “Um, I just came from Shiro’s room. You?” At this she sighed “The Hangers- sorry I snapped it’s just. I’m waiting for something to happen I mean when has Team Voltron catch a break?” Lance chuckled “You’re telling me...want some food goo?”  
“...Yeah.”

They both walked towards the kitchens in silence, Lance grabbed the bowls and sporks while Pidge messed with the station “Y’know maybe I could add some sort of flavouring-”  
“Please don’t, I would rather leave that to Hunk and if he hadn’t tried it yet, it’s for good reason.” Pidge nodded, they both sat down, Lance helping himself while Pidge mixed around the green substance.  
Then Pidge sighed “You know, I said I would never let my team down.” He paused eating and gave her his full attention “I really wish I knew why you didn’t trust me with this. I mean I thought we were over secrets?” Lance internally sighed, he should have known this was coming he swallowed.  
“Pidge, look. You had too much on your plate. Losing your family then Shiro...I had no idea what you were going through but I could imagine that it was horrible so I kept my trap shut.” Lance eyes narrowed “I do trust you Pidge, all of you, and if there were no way of getting Shiro back I was going to tell you, things just happened.” Pidge didn’t seem to like that idea.  
“Lance, this just proves why you SHOULD have talked to us, this all could have been avoided if you just tried to talk to us, a little. But you spoke to Hagger and Slav. Those two strangers over your own team mates.” Pidge stood up emptying her goo in the dispenser, “I stayed here and trusted you guys enough to tell you my secrets, I just thought you guys would do the same.”

Lance watched her go and sighed, he glanced down at his bowl suddenly not very hungry.

 

Not a few hours later does Lance find Keith alone in the gym, odd he thought he would still be with Shiro every waking moment, Lance had no idea the past few days had been a blur. He had no idea what day it even WAS right now.  
Keith saw him and scowled “I’m still mad at you.” Lance only blinked “Wow really? I guess that’s our thing. Being mad at each other.” Keith began to pace still upset, clearly.  
“All this time, and yet you never said anything- I thought we were over this.”  
Lance looks down at his feet, he’ll admit he was ashamed of how he’d handled things “I know now that it was stupid and I wasn’t thinking properly okay, it won’t happen again.” Keith sighed and stood up.  
“Lance,” He sounded tired as if he’s rehearsed this over and over. “It’s okay to have secrets, not all of us share everything in our life. But this was...it was something you DEFINITELY should have told us about, or someone at least.”  
Lance piped up “I did, I told Slav.”   
“I know, but I don’t think Slav is most, mentally sound person here AND you’ve been talking to Hagger.” Lance pouted “I didn’t only just talk to-”  
“Lance,” Keith cut him off, he wasn’t even listening! “It’s pretty obvious you turned your back on the team, but I know that’s not on you, if you thought you couldn’t be honest with us is because we made it so.” Lance blinked, he was not expecting that.  
“I wish you could stop lying and tell us what’s wrong.”  
“I’m not lying now?” Lance asked mostly confused but Keith gave an exasperated huff “You’re doing it now! You think you can keep secrets from us but you can stop now.” Lance shook his head “But I’m not keeping secrets, I told you guys everything.”  
“Bullshit. I know you like Shiro.”  
The silence was deafening, Lance scoffed “No I don’t.” Keith was not buying it “Lance, I know you’ve been trying to avoid Shiro like the plague and yet when he vanished you were the first one who reacted strongly and the one who knew Shiro wasn’t...Shiro.” Lance had nothing to say to that.  
“I know you guys need to work things out, but if you’re...confused about that sort of thing then you can ask me I’ve been there done that.” Lance frowned “Wait you’re okay? With me liking Shiro, and the whole guy thing?” Keith only gave him a blank look “Lance.”  
“Sorry it’s just...this is the most bizarre way of getting your blessing.” Keith surprisingly laughed at this.  
“I never imagined this happening either but actually, when it comes to Shiro, I don’t mind if it’s you. Well you need to work on communicating, Shiro has his own set of problems so don’t worry about it.”  
Lance almost wanted to cry, “Keith, I’m so sorry.” That drew the Red Paladin back.  
“For what?”  
“For yelling at you, saying you’ll never be like Shiro- which is true because you are your own person and you did great and I should have helped you but I didn’t and you’re being so nice right now-”  
Keith hugged him, Lance was being so dazzled surprised by Keith today, gosh Keith GIVING hugs, has the world ended.  
“It’s okay Lance, I forgive you.” Lance felt like he didn’t deserve it but he hugged Keith back, “Seriously I’m sorry for saying that stuff about being the Black Paladin, I….you weren’t...terrible.”   
“Is that a compliment.”  
“I can retract it, bub.”   
Keith laughed and pulled back and patted his arm “You should talk to Shiro. He missed you,” Lance sighed “Doesn’t act like it.” Keith looked understanding “He’s been talking to me, which is why I’m saying you should talk to him, work everything out.” Lance nodded, “I will. Thanks Keith.”  
“Anytime.”

That...was nice. Whatever type of banter that was seemed to have shifted their relationship, Lance felt as if he was more open to Keith more than ever.

Just as Lance left the gym he knew he should listen to Keith and talk to Shiro but...his feet was taking him somewhere else he knew he was ready to face Shiro yet, he had no idea what to say like….  
Dude why have you been avoiding me? Sure I was here recently with a night terror...I’ll just uh…

Yeah he was going to screw that up so easily.  
He stopped walking when he heard the sound of a blow torch and saw he was in the hanger deck with all the lions, he saw Hunk working on yellows paw.  
Lance felt like he was intruding until Hunk lifted up his mask “Hey Lance! Come on over I’m almost done.” Lance walked over “Hey don’t let me rush you.” He walked over to a desk a few feet away and sat upon it waiting for Hunk.

“Finally ready to talk to me?” Hunk teased and Lance felt a hot flush of shame “Hunk, man I am so sorry for not being here at all I mean I was sorting through things and-” Hunk laughed and clapped him on the back. He seemed to be finished with yellows paw now.  
“It’s fine.” Hunk calmed down “Seriously thought, are you doing okay?” Lance glanced down “Um, yeah?” Hunk raised an eyebrow “That sounded like a question.” Lance shrugged “What do you want me to say Hunk, I just...I wish I could carry on as normal but I...everything's so messed up.” Hunk sat beside him and gave him a serious look.  
“Listen Lance, it’s okay not to feel...okay. I mean all of us has had ways of dealing with Shiro’s disappearance and yet not one of us asked if YOU were okay.”  
“Hunk everyone was having problems.”  
“True, but so were you. We all sorted through them alone which is the problem we should have grieved together and tried to figure something out...but we didn’t and we almost lost you and Shiro because of it.”  
Lance looked up sharply “You guys weren’t going to lose me. What are you talking about.” Hunk gave him a dry look “Lance we saw you talking more to Slav and hagger than us, it’s like you were slipping away, honestly not everyone was dealing with it properly, ESPECIALLY not me.” Hunk wrapped Lance up in a side hug.  
“So I’m going to ask you again. Are you okay?” Lance turned to look at him and give him the same answer. But at Hunks face he knew he couldn’t, he wasn’t okay, not at all.  
“I’m…” He choked then felt his face scrunch up, he looked away but Hunk drew closer “It’s okay.” His voice soft “Let it out.” 

Lance would later admit that he did not cry, but he’d be a fuckin liar. He cried like a baby and thankfully Hunk had no judgement, he would probably tease Lance later but it was cool when Hunk did it since he cried all the time too.  
Lance pulled back and wiped at his eyes “Oh god, this whole month was just crap.” Hunk nodded “You’re telling me. Hey Lance know what we need?”  
“What?”  
“A holiday.”   
Lance placed a hand on Hunks shoulder and the big guy thought Lance was going to start crying again.  
“Dude, I am in some REAL need of a holiday.” Hunk was pleased with this “We should tell the others we could plan it maybe ask Allura for some Planet resorts or maybe have everyone return to Earth we could show Allura and Coran around…” Lance watched as Hunk began to babble really getting into the idea of a vacation.  
“Hunk, thanks for everything.” Hunk only made a soft cooing sound “Aw bro.” He gave Lance a bear hug “It’s cool, just know that we’re here okay.”  
It felt...refreshing for once knowing for sure that he had someone in his corner, all this time he could’ve been talking to Hunk and Pidge. Lance stood up and Hunk watched him curiously.  
“I’m going to talk to Hagger,” Hunk’s face fell “Dude.”   
Lance soon realised how that sounded “It’s the last time, I’m going to tell you all about it, I’m not keeping secrets anymore but I don’t just want to...ditch her, she’s a bad guy sure but I’m not a jerk.” Hunk glanced away “Could’ve fooled me.”  
Lance playfully punched his side “You’re a jerk.”

They played it off and Lance felt reluctant to see Hagger, but he had he did not want to leave anything unresolved.  
He stood at the prison door then took a breath, he was thinking on what to say then decided to wing it.

The door opened to reveal Hagger in her prison sitting in the corner, her gaze flickered upwards tiredly, was she crying?  
Lance swallowed but stepped forward and sat on the floor cross legged, he did this all the time talking to Haggar became so routine.  
“We meet again, Paladin. What do you wish to discuss today.”

“You spoke last time, about how we’re not so different.” She raised an eyebrow “And I’m here to tell you that sure, we may have some things in common but we’re not the same.”  
Hagger scoffed “Don’t be so sure-”  
“And that’s where I’m going to stop you, because we’re not. First off. You’re a woman.” Hagger blinked and Lance stood up “And Altean, and you’re Leader became an Emperor and annihilated a whole PLANET airbender style, and I admit I’m not perfect.” Lance took a step forward his eyes narrowing.  
“But I have had nothing of people telling me that they can see who I am and judge me because of how I’ve handled certain situations but get this. No one can tell me who I am but me, sure you followed Zarkon but if I knew something was wrong I spoke up about it, Shiro has listened to me when I said I can do something he trusted me to do it. He’s had my back and I’ve had his which is actually a lot more than what Zarkon did to you.” 

Hagger face was twisting into a scowl and Lance quickly continued “You basically said if I stayed like this I might turn out like you, you followed your leader and ended up losing most of your fellow Paladins and Voltron itself. But I’m still here,” He held back a bad queer joke “With my friends and truthfully if I’d been more honest we would have been closer and that was on me, but I’m going to fix it, no more lies. So which is why I’m here to tell you that I’m no longer going to be here...talking to you.”   
Hagger rolled her eyes “Believe me, I never liked these discussions.” Lance pouted “Fine least you’ll be happy then that I’m going.”  
Hagger called back “But I don’t dislike them either, in another life maybe...we could have been unlikely friends.” Lance blinks then smiles “Maybe. In another life then.”

Pretty freakin weird how she mentioned an alternate life of them being friends? Nah he was reading too much into it.

“Lance?” The boy nearly crashed into a wall as he turned to see Kuro- no. No it’s Shiro, Lance felt a little disoriented for a moment “Hey- Hey Shiro! You’re up!” Lance knew he was laying it on a little fic but his thoughts were in turmoil he had no idea what day it was.  
Until he remembered Shiro wasn’t even supposed to be up.  
“Shiro. You should be in bed.” Shiro’s face fell looking then his eyes narrowed “I’m fine,” Lance grabbed his hand “No, you should be resting, Shiro we’re fine here no tyranny from both sides, the war's over now it’s time for complicated politics.” Shiro chuckled “Which is a war in itself, I wonder which is worse.” He let himself being manhandled to his room and settled onto his bed. 

“Alright I’m going to get Keith, since someone needs to babysit you.” Shiro only raised an eyebrow “Lance. Can you stay?” Lance was dreading this, it was the talk. Say what you will but he was purposely avoiding this the whole day. Keith must have told Shiro that Lance needed a talk.  
The traitor.  
“Could you sit?” Lance turned then nodded he walked over and sat on Shiro’s bed. 

He thought Shiro would talk straight away, but the guy was just staring at a space between the wall in concentration, either he was trying to learn laser heat vision or he recovering from a thought trainwreck.  
Lance took a breath “So, Hunk was thinking of a vacation I mean boy do we need it! The pool was okay but counter productive by being upside down,” Lance tried to think of other things to say but when Shiro sighed Lance stopped. Was he irritating him?  
Gosh all this time he’s been with Shiro he had no idea how to read him right now, it was like pulling out teeth.  
“Lance,” Shiro began still looking unsure if he was even going to say this right “I never said thank you, for being there since the start and still being here now.” Shiro looked him in the eye “I have no idea what I’d done to deserve it compared to the others I’ve never really been that much involved with you.” Lance felt his whole body protesting “You don’t put that much stock into what you think of yourself do you? I’ve seen you Shiro and I see how you notice so many things about our team, you know what to say to Pidge about her family, you were there for Hunk and you keep Keith level headed which even I admit is pretty incredible, and you noticed me.”  
Shiro stared at him blankly and Lance flushed trying to backtrack “I-uh abu,” Words Lance, use your words.

“When you called me sharpshooter, I mean you didn’t have to take that seriously but you did I know I’m obviously good at using a rifle but having someone admit it outloud? It made me feel about about myself.” Lance nudged his shoulder.  
It was silent again and Shiro took a breath “Do you wonder how you could’ve found me in the first place?” Shiro asked and Lance was stumped “Honestly I had no idea...maybe it’s the joys of being the Blue Paladin?” Shiro nodded “Maybe...listen I’m sorry.” Lance tensed oh god here it comes, the not me it’s you.  
“Shiro it’s okay, I don’t expect anything.” Now Shiro looked caught off guard “What?”  
“I mean after everything that happened emotions running high, I can understand if you regret anything that happened,” Shiro shook his head “No,”  
“No?” Lance paused and saw Shiro breathing was a little faster than usual “I was going to say we should tell the team about us- did you not want to?” Lance blinked not expecting this at all.  
“Tell the team…”  
Shiro had the decency to look embarrassed “I mean with this that we have I would like to continue with it and tell the team that is unless you don’t want to?”

 

Lance couldn’t believe his luck, Shiro wasn’t breaking up with him- well they weren’t dating yet but it felt like it was a possibility, but now he wants him officially.  
Lance hugged him and Shiro almost fell backwards “We’ll tell the team.” He was so happy, but a stupid little voice had to make itself known.  
“Wait.” he pulled back frowning, knowing this could probably ruin any chances but he had to agree with the voice and ask this question.

“When you came back and was on bed rest why did you avoid me?” Shiro blinked “Avoid? Lance we were sharing a bed-”  
“And you told me to leave and get Keith straight away.” Shiro grimaced then glanced down “Honestly, I was freaking out.”   
Lance never expected such words to leave his idols mouth, Shiro continued almost looking ashamed “I’ve never- with anyone before and I had no idea how to act around you, how to even begin to think of what we even were so I had Keith talk me down,” Shiro looked away “I had no clue that he went through this type of thing before me.” Lance held back the urge to snicker “You never experimented before?” Shiro glanced away “I’ve...come to terms with my sexuality for a while but actual relationships are different I don’t want to string you along or make you regret this.” Lance gave an amused hum.  
“Shiro if we were a fusion our crippling anxiety and depression may destroy continents al la godzilla style.”  
“What?”  
“And at the same time be the ultimate reliable dad with dashing good looks and armed with killer puns.”  
“Lance, I have no idea what you're trying to say.” Lance kissed him on the lips making Shiro sag, “What I’m saying is that we’re a team, we can face the world together and trust one another to say what’s getting us down.” He then rested his forehead against Shiro’s.

“When it comes to this type of stuff you can talk to me about it, we’ll be confused and razzled together.” Shiro chuckled “That’s one hell of a proposition.”  
“I aim to please.”  
Shiro kissed him this time and Lance had no idea how it happened but it turned from a sweet makeout session to a playful tickle fight, Shiro fought DIRTY! After Lance was the victor as he had many siblings to win tickle fights with, both fell to the blankets in a table of limbs breathless eyes crinkling in mirth.

They both leaned back on the bed and Lance pulled the blankets over them Shiro protested but Lance slapped his wrist and said, cannit you’re sick! On which Shiro only shrugged and let Lance baby him.  
They were content for a while, Lance wondering how the others were going to act once Shiro and he announced they were (officially) dating. Right until...  
“What was this about Fusion?”   
Oh god.  
He explained as he lay on Shiro his head resting on the older mans chest, feeling lulled by his steady breathing….

 

And then woke up a minute later, to Shiro sitting up? He glanced up tired and groggy about to ask Shiro what he was doing up until his words caught in his throat, as the man looked down his eyes cruel and cold.  
He smiled “Hello, Darling.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So many things to say for this chapter, as it was a long one but YAY it’s finished, I know the ending was lacklustre but it was the ending I had planned and I couldn’t think of another one.  
> Want to know something freaky? The anti lance DID die in the other universe, Kuro just kept his body preserved except during the night waiting for Lance to re animate it. When he world hopped
> 
> Also how did Lance flit from one world to the next? I tried to have the answer being old by Slav or Hagger but I couldn’t find a way to fit it in? Or actually make sense to the story because the more I think of explaining Lance’s ability the more dumb it sounds, already I screwed this fic over with time travel so I did not want to make it worse.  
>  So Lance’s alternate hopping is a secret but the Clue is with the Blue Lion.  
> I DO APOLOGISE for the bad grammer in the past three Chapters so I am going to grammer check the whole thing in the future and sort it out…when I get the time.  
> Also thank you to ALL of guys for following giving me Kudo’s and comments they mean so much and made my day like screaming like 12 year old rolling on my bed type day. SO thank you for staying with this and I hope you all enjoyed it.


End file.
